Painter and Meadows win Coach of the Year award

Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows have shared the BBC Sports Personality Coach of the Year award after guiding Keely Hodgkinson to Olympic gold at Paris 2024.

With the help of Painter and Meadows, Hodgkinson, 22, secured her first global 800m title in the French capital in August.

Hodgkinson also retained her European title and became the sixth-fastest woman in history over the two-lap event with a new British record of one minute 54.61 seconds. She also won the main 2024 Sports Personality of the Year award.

Painter and Meadows' Manchester-based M11 Track Club produced two further Olympic medals for Team GB in Paris, as Georgia Bell claimed 1500m bronze and Lewis Davey won bronze as part of the men's 4x400m relay team.

Painter previously coached Meadows, who won world 800m and 4x400m relay bronze medals in 2009, and world indoor 800m silver in 2010.

They married in 2006.

Painter said: "First of all it is an honour to get the microphone as Jenny normally does all the talking.

"It is hard enough standing out in Wigan as a coach, as you have Matt Peet at Wigan Warriors, you have Shaun Wane and Andy Farrell - it is great to do the best you can."

Meadows said: "I have got to say Trevor's leadership is brilliant. He really involves that culture and fun. It is hard work on a daily basis."

Together they led Hodgkinson to Olympic silver as a teenager on her Games debut in Tokyo three years ago, before the Leigh athlete won consecutive world silvers in 2022 and 2023.

She followed that up with Olympic gold by dominating the final and delivering the gold she and her team had been working towards.

The joint award was presented to Painter and Meadows by London 2012 Olympic heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis-Hill and Kelly Holmes - winner of 800m and 1500m gold at Athens 2004.

While Hodgkinson won Olympic gold, team-mate Bell also stood on the podium in Paris.

Bell quit athletics in 2017 and was still holding down a full-time job at the start of this year.

But after reuniting with Painter three years ago, the 31-year-old achieved a fairytale 1500m bronze on her Olympic debut following European silver in June.

Davey, meanwhile, is now a three-time global relay medallist at 24 after adding bronze in Paris to two medals at last year's World Championships.

There is a World Championships in Tokyo to target in 2025, where Painter and Meadows will hope to guide their athletes to further international success.

Last year, football manager Pep Guardiola was named Coach of the Year as his Treble-winning Manchester City side won Team of the Year.