Tassie track star Susan Andrews back to where it all began

ONE of Tasmania’s most successful track and field athletes, Susan Andrews, is now an athletics coach of the Tasmanian Institute of Sport.

ONE of Tasmania’s most successful track and field athletes, Susan Andrews, has returned home to take up the position as the new athletics coach of the Tasmanian Institute of Sport.

The Tasmanian Sporting Hall of Fame inductee, dual Olympian and Commonwealth Games representative, and former TIS scholarship holder will return to her roots to take up the role after her former coach Peter Fortune brought an end to his eight-year stint as co-ordinator of the athletics program.

Andrews has been coaching middle distance runners in Western Australia for the past 11 years and said she was thrilled to return home.

“I took up the job partly to move back to Tasmania with my family,” she said.

“I’ve always wanted to be involved in the institute in some way and the fact that I get to coach, which is what I really love doing, and work with the elite end of the sport like Hamish and Huw Peacock is very exciting.”

Andrews has big shoes to fill in replacing the man who coached Cathy Freeman to a gold medal at the Sydney Olympics, but she is confident she is more than ready.

“His role was different as he was a co-ordinator, hopefully I can continue his work but I am coaching as well while Forte was more of a mentor,” she said. She will also work with Athletics Tasmania to implement the new Target Talent program for the state’s promising under 19 and 17 athletes.

TIS director Paul Austen said international experience as an athlete and coach would significantly assist Andrews.

Unlike her predecessor, Andrews will be based in Hobart at the TIS Technopark facility rather than the Silverdome in Launceston.