David Griffiths – Q&A

David Griffiths – Q&A

A conversation with one of the Isle of Man’s most dedicated athletics contributors: writer, videographer, statistician, and storyteller behind much of the island’s athletics coverage.

Background & Beginnings

How did you first become involved in athletics on the Isle of Man?

I started running with my dad when I was about 8 years of age, around the time I first went to King William’s College. We used to run at Noble’s Park and also on Douglas Head (on the land used these days for the Killer Mile). I showed plenty of natural ability and soon started beating all the older boys at school cross-country races. Later, at about 14, I began competing in the Isle of Man Cross-Country League on courses such as Silverburn, Castleward, and Vollan Farm (Ramsey). There was a team element to the races for non-athletics clubs, and I used to run for Braddan Football Club. We won the league one year with me as the leading team member. There were no rules about running in your own age group in those days, so from the age of 14 I ran the full senior distance and had many high placings.

Do you remember the first event you ever covered or published results for? What was that experience like?

Not specifically, but in the days before social media took off, Murray Lambden published his superb and revolutionary website manxathletics.com. This had a forum which anyone could use, and I often used to comment there on performances and results. Later, I set up blogs to publish reports and photos from the 2009 and 2011 Island Games, which I suppose was the start of my serious publishing.

What inspired you to take on the responsibility of documenting and preserving Manx athletics through your writing, videos, and results?

Again, the inspiration was Murray. He was so far ahead of his time in the way he covered athletics through his website. I was already taking videos of athletics events but had no idea how to share them, so I would sometimes put them on a DVD which Murray then used to publish from. I have always had a passion for sporting history and statistics, and I like to do things that haven’t been done before. That was certainly the inspiration for compiling a complete database of all performances at the Island Games in athletics — and setting up my Island Games Athletics group which covers all the islands, not just the Isle of Man.

In 2019, two years after Murray’s untimely passing, his family asked me if I would take on the manxathletics Facebook page, which I was delighted and proud to do. That gave me a single platform for all my coverage, whereas previously I had been publishing material on a variety of different sites. Being asked to continue Murray’s work was an absolute privilege and still is.

What does athletics mean to you personally — beyond the performances and statistics?

It’s a huge part of my life, and I love being amongst athletics people of all ages and standards. Athletes and those involved in the sport tend to be genuinely nice people, and I get a lot of joy from seeing someone who has just achieved a significant performance. It doesn’t matter whether that’s breaking a record or winning a medal, or whether it’s someone further down the field who has just achieved a big personal target after trying for a long time.

Athletics is an individual sport, and although coaches and people in other roles play a huge part, once the event starts the athlete is on their own. In a team sport you can always blame someone else, but not in an individual sport — it’s all on you. I think it teaches discipline and focus, which are important life skills generally.

Was there anyone who inspired or encouraged you to start sharing Manx athletics stories in the way you do today?

I always remember, as a good young athlete, how much it meant to me to get an encouraging mention in the newspaper from Peter McElroy after a good performance, and that has always stuck with me. When reporting on an event I bear this in mind, and often try to look for a story about one of the competitors further down the field as well as covering the leaders.

Role & Responsibilities

How do you balance covering multiple events — often on the same day — while maintaining accuracy and depth in your reporting?

It really helps when events have electronically produced results which are instant. However, the majority of event organisers do produce results quite quickly even when done manually, which is a great help to me with my coverage. Once I get home, I download the video footage straight away, and then usually publish a short video focusing on a headline story from the event. Sometimes that might be a funny or significant moment rather than who has won the race.

Hopefully by the time I publish the full edited video, I will have the results to hand so I can do a summary of the leading positions to go with the film and quote accurate times where relevant.

What are the biggest challenges you face — whether that’s time pressure, technology, or the logistics of covering so many competitions?

Probably the standards I expect from myself. The coverage I provide on the manxathletics Facebook page is all completely unofficial and independent — and in my view, it’s all the better for that. I’m completely in charge of everything I publish, so I want it to be the best quality it can be, and as accurate as possible.

I’m pretty hopeless with technology and am a bit of a Luddite, preferring to stick with what I know. I’m still using Windows Movie Maker even though it’s becoming outdated now — I really need to make time to learn how to use newer software! I don’t like having a backlog, so I usually spend a lot of time immediately after an event doing everything I need to do — publishing videos, writing reports, updating databases, etc. Then I can relax a bit before the next event, maybe finding time to publish another feature.

Is there a particular type of content you enjoy producing the most — results, interviews, videos, or written features?

Although I rarely have enough time, writing in-depth features on Manx athletes would be my favourite. Following Sarah Astin’s victory in the 2023 English National Cross-Country Championships, I spent several weeks working on a feature covering her entire athletics career, which I thoroughly enjoyed doing.

Another really enjoyable task was putting together a short history of the TT40 road race which ran from the 1950s to the 1990s. That created a lot of interest off-island from former competitors and their families. I must admit one thing I have never done is interviews, and perhaps this is something I should consider in the future.

How do you decide which stories or moments deserve a deeper feature or video spotlight?

Sometimes it’s an instant decision based on something that has happened during an event — maybe someone taking a spectacular tumble during a fell race (as long as they aren’t hurt, of course!). It might be a statistical thing, like somebody completing 50 Winter Hill League races.

One of my favourites was after Keely Hodgkinson won the Olympic 800 metres title in 2024 — I immediately delved into my video archives and found footage of her finishing something like 50th in the U15 Girls race at the Inter-Counties Cross-Country. That was great to publish because it was very topical, and also demonstrated that you don’t have to be a champion as a youngster to go on to become a great senior athlete.

Storytelling & Coverage

What makes a great athletics story in your eyes — the performance, the personality, or the journey behind it?

Definitely a mix of all of those things. I especially enjoy watching an athlete come into the sport relatively late and make a big impact very quickly. There have been many of those over the years and there continue to be today. They are the ones who I think really inspire others to follow in their footsteps.

Do you approach covering junior, senior, and masters athletes differently?

Certainly I do with younger athletes. I have always made it a general rule with video coverage not to name athletes in age groups below under-13. So if I’m publishing a video of a cross-country race for under-nine or under-11 runners, I will just say something like “fast and furious racing from the under-nines.” Very occasionally I will break this rule, especially if someone has achieved a significant performance off-island, but keeping pressure off youngsters is vitally important and something I am constantly aware of when providing coverage.

Have there been moments where you’ve found yourself emotionally invested in an athlete’s performance or achievement?

Certainly. In the years when I was married to Gail Sheeley, I would attend nearly every training session as well as all the races. Watching her progress from being a total novice at nearly 40 to winning two silver medals at the 2013 Island Games in Bermuda at 48 was amazing, and she proved how far hard work and dedication can get you in athletics — as well as having a brilliant coach in Andy Fox.

Also, watching youngsters come into the sport at a very young age and progress right through to Commonwealth Games level is genuinely emotional to see, especially when they are wearing the Isle of Man vest. In recent years I have loved watching my great niece and great nephew, Mollie and Billy McMullan, competing in athletics. Seeing them both win individual medals at the Lancashire Cross-Country a couple of years ago was absolutely wonderful.

How do you ensure your work reflects the diversity and spirit of the Isle of Man athletics community as a whole?

Athletics is an extremely diverse sport anyway — it’s quite hard to reconcile the fact that shot putting and fell running, for example, are part of the same sport — but both can produce interesting and inspirational stories. Every event on the Island has a different feel to it; even the different clubs have their own ways of doing things, and I hope that variety is reflected in the coverage.

I think the spirit of athletics is often demonstrated in some of the immediate post-event scenes, with athletes taking genuine pleasure in each other’s achievements. I love to capture those moments.

Has there ever been an article or video that had an unexpected impact — perhaps inspiring others or helping an athlete gain recognition?

One video that went ‘viral’ quite recently was of well-known UK blade runner Richard Whitehead, who visited the Isle of Man in August to run in the Ramsey Marathon. The short video of him reached over 30,000 views within a couple of days and was shared all over the place.

Even more recently, the most popular article on the page so far in 2025 was the report on Sarah Webster’s incredible world record performance in the 24-hour World Championships less than two weeks ago. That has had nearly 52,000 views — and counting!

I recall an athlete just a couple of years ago telling me that they thought the coverage I had provided was largely responsible for them winning an award at the Isle of Man Sports Awards, and I really appreciated that they had thought so.

Community & Collaboration

What do you think is the value of having strong storytelling, media, and results coverage within a smaller athletics community like the Isle of Man?

I think athletics is very well covered on the Isle of Man and always has been — certainly compared with most other communities of our size. Of course, it’s changed a lot during my time in the sport with websites and social media. In the old days, you wouldn’t find out the results of this week’s event until buying the newspaper the following week. Now it’s instant.

As well as Murray, I would like to mention John Watterson, whose coverage of all Manx sport for more than 50 years has been exceptional — he fully deserves all the accolades that have come his way recently. Peter McElroy and Dave Phillips both provided fantastic coverage in their eras, and nowadays many of the stories published by me, the clubs, and Isle of Man Athletics are quickly shared by local news outlets.

Do you take more joy in following local athletics, or do you also enjoy following British, European, and world-level results?

I have to say that I follow the off-island scene a lot less than I used to. I still enjoy watching the major championships on TV and have been to several European Cross-Country Championships, but overall I’m nowhere near as in touch with the worldwide or even British athletics scene as I was 10 to 15 years ago.

It’s partly because I’m so busy with covering the local scene, but I’ve also become quite disillusioned with the constant doping scandals, and the way events such as the Diamond League are constantly messing with formats and distances. I’m also not sure that British Athletics are looking after the sport in the UK anywhere near as well as they should be.

The Manx scene is not perfect by any means, but it’s fair to say I get more joy from that these days than from what’s happening worldwide.

What are your favourite events to cover on the island?

Whilst I enjoy them all, I would have to say that a fell race on a lovely clear sunny day is hard to beat. When you love both athletics and the fantastic Manx scenery, enjoying them together in beautiful weather makes for the perfect day out — and provides plenty of exercise too!

Memorable Moments & Highlights

Looking back, are there any particular features, events, or moments that stand out as especially meaningful to you?

One that will always stand out — and I suggested at the time that it was possibly the greatest performance in the history of Isle of Man athletics — was Catherine Reid’s bronze medal in the women’s 400 metres at the 2015 World Youth (Under 18) Championships in Colombia. Of course, an opinion like that is very subjective and others will have different views, but for her to finish third in the world in her age group was a phenomenal achievement.

With the time difference of something like five hours, I watched the live stream at about 2:30 a.m., and I don’t think I got back to sleep for the rest of the night — I was buzzing so much. It was an utterly brilliant run. The fact that serious injury prevented Catherine from going on to achieve what she was capable of at senior level is probably my biggest disappointment in local athletics. She really was a fantastic athlete and Olympic material for sure.

Do you have a favourite photo, video, or piece of writing that makes you especially proud?

In terms of writing, it’s probably the aforementioned profile of Sarah Astin which I wrote in 2023. Of the thousands of videos I have taken, my favourite is probably Rachael Franklin’s victory in a truly epic 1500 metres final at the Island Games in Jersey in 2015.

She was in her fifth Games and had yet to win an individual gold medal, and for the past several Games she had always been second-best to her big rival Eilidh Mackenzie from the Western Isles. On this occasion Rachael went into the race as the clear favourite after strong early-season form, but Eilidh had other ideas and surged into the lead down the finishing straight.

Rachael somehow summoned up one final effort, and despite Eilidh crossing the line horizontally, Rachael just got there in front — breaking the Games record in the process. There was a thunderstorm brewing that evening and the pre-race atmosphere was unbearably tense. The race that unfolded was something I will never forget. It proved to be the springboard for Rachael’s career to really take off, and I really treasure my video footage which I have published several times since.

If you could preserve one era or race in Manx athletics history forever, what would it be — and why?

What a great question! I would say that my two personal favourite events on the local calendar are the Easter Festival and the Parish Walk. Both have long and incredibly rich histories and need to be preserved for future generations to enjoy.

Road events are, of course, becoming increasingly difficult to organise and take a huge amount of work to put on — but these two events are precious, and I hope they are around for many years to come. They both need more volunteers to come forward to ensure their long-term future.

The Isle of Man has produced many successful athletes over the years — what do you attribute this success to?

I think it’s the many inspirational role models we’ve had over the years who have shown what can be achieved by athletes from a small island. Bill Kelly was probably the first in the 1950s, and every generation since has had its own heroes.

During my days as a promising teenage distance runner, my heroes were Steve Kelly and Dave Newton, who both ran in the Commonwealth Games Marathon in 1978 and dominated the local scene for many years. They were so encouraging to youngsters like me.

Keith Gerrard’s victories in the English National and Inter-Counties Cross-Country Championships — and his several Great Britain vests — set the fairly recent standard which many have aspired to since. Race walking has had many inspirational figures as well, too many to mention them all, but Steve Partington continues to inspire our younger generation — many of whom may not even know how brilliant a competitor he was.

What have been your fondest memories of athletes or events that have stood out to you over the years?

I absolutely love the Island Games. While I was competing as a race walker in my 30s and early 40s, I took little interest in Track & Field, but when the Games were awarded to Shetland in 2005, I wanted to go because I love remote places and had always fancied visiting Shetland.

I was straight away completely smitten with the whole concept of small islands competing against each other in a week-long ‘mini-Olympics’, and the atmosphere among the Isle of Man athletes that week was brilliant. I have never missed one since, and have made so many lasting friendships with people from all around the islands.

I know it’s not as high a standard as the Commonwealth Games, but that makes it achievable by more athletes. I think having that target to aim for every two years is absolutely crucial for our athletes and keeps motivation high all through each two-year cycle.

What do you consider to be your biggest personal achievement while being involved with Isle of Man athletics?

I don’t think it’s any one thing, but I hope that by being a reliable and regular presence at most events, and by always trying to promote the sport and the people in it in the most positive light, I have helped both the sport and the athletes.

Motivation & Challenges

You do a lot behind the scenes that many people might not see. What keeps you motivated to continue?

Some of it can be a bit tedious and time-consuming, like updating all the databases after an event with hundreds of competitors. I’ll have the Syd Quirk to do soon. However, having accurate and up-to-date records of so many events helps me to produce regular statistics which I hope the athletes, both past and present, find interesting.

How do you handle the workload and time commitment involved in covering so many local events?

Mainly by producing the reports, videos etc as soon as possible afterwards. The coverage is more relevant if it’s done promptly, and allows me to have a break if the next event isn’t for a week or two.

Have you ever faced moments where you considered stepping back — and what made you keep going?

Occasionally yes, not least during the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham when the video coverage I was publishing of the Isle of Man competitors became the subject of a complaint by the official broadcasters the BBC. Believe it or not, the Commonwealth Games organisers threatened to withdraw the entire Isle of Man team from the remainder of the Games if the footage wasn’t taken down immediately, leaving me with no choice but to remove it. After that experience I really questioned what I was doing and why, but fortunately the next local event on my return home was the No Rest for the Wicked series. That brilliant week each August can’t help but to restore the spirits!

How do you deal with mistakes, technical issues, or the pressure to get things right every time?

Sometimes I think I’m too much of a perfectionist and spend too much time making sure there are no spelling mistakes etc. Hopefully though, that does mean that there aren’t too many mistakes to correct afterwards. People are really good with feedback and will tell me politely if I have got something wrong or have missed something, and those errors are edited straight away. I haven’t had too many technical issues with the videos, mainly because I’m stuck in my ways and am a bit scared of updating my methods. Not much has changed in the way I have produced my videos over the past few years – I stick with what I know works!

What’s one thing people might not realise about the amount of effort that goes into your work?

Again probably being too strict with myself. Producing a video of an event can involve editing together more than 100 pieces of footage, and I go through every single one to try and remove any bits where the camerawork is poor, and to make sure there is a clean transition from one bit of footage to the next so that it’s easy to watch. I am also careful every time to cut out anything that could possibly cause embarrassment to anyone. If I’ve inadvertently caught someone scratching their backside or picking their nose for example, I will take that out, and also if I’ve picked up someone in the background saying something that they wouldn’t have said if they’d known that it was being recorded (and that’s happened on many occasions!), I will take that out too. I will also not publish any footage of an athlete looking seriously distressed, especially if it’s a youngster. I do all these checks on every video without exception, even though it is time-consuming.

Looking Ahead

What are your goals for your work in Manx athletics over the next few years?

Basically to continue what I have been doing for a number of years now. Once I have retired from work in about three years I may think about how I can expand the coverage. I would certainly like to get back to doing the weekly Throwback Thursday articles which were very popular and very enjoyable to do. As my coverage of current events has grown, I have run out of time to do these for the moment. I also created a YouTube channel a few years ago with the intention of publishing all the Facebook videos on there as well for posterity, but I ran out of time for that too.

How do you hope your work benefits future generations of Manx athletes and supporters?

From time to time, athletes tell me they have been inspired by something I have published. It might be about them, or it might be about another athlete who they look up to. That really means a lot to me, and I hope that will continue for years to come.

What do you hope your legacy will be within Isle of Man Athletics — as someone who has helped record and celebrate its history?

I have no interest in a personal legacy, I just do what I do because I enjoy it. But certainly when I am retired from work I hope to look into ways that the material I have can be readily shared and made available long into the future when I’m no longer here. I must say also that I am far from being the only historian of Manx athletics. Ian Callister for one has an enormous archive of newspaper cuttings – far more comprehensive even than Murray’s collection which I am now lucky enough to have. I love reading his regular posts about the history of particular events. Ian has also lent me his scrapbooks on occasions, which were especially useful when I expanded Murray’s database for the Winter Hill League.

Quick-Fire Questions

Favourite event to cover?

A fell race on a beautiful sunny summer’s day.

Most challenging event you’ve ever covered?

The 2022 Commonwealth Games for reasons I’ve already gone into!

Favourite Manx athletics memory?

Personally, completing the Parish Walk in 2000.

Go-to tool or piece of kit you couldn’t work without?

It’s a dead heat between the laptop and the video camera!

One word to describe how it feels to see your work shared and appreciated?

Happy!