At Hornsby Athletics, our coaches work together to create a supportive and inclusive environment for every athlete. We focus on helping each person improve at their own pace, building skills and confidence while caring for their overall wellbeing. Our aim is not just to develop athletic ability, but to nurture a love of sport that lasts — with improvement, enjoyment, and personal growth at the heart of everything we do.
Meet our coaches:
Alice Clayton - Club President and Coaching Coordinator
Alice has a long background in athletics, being involved at a young age, and is competing in Masters athletics when her body is compliant. She is deeply passionate about lifelong participation in athletics and sport, and focusses on making athletics accessible, enjoyable, and sustainable for all ages. She has achieved her Level 2 Athletics Coaching and Level 1 Recreational Running accreditations, and has over 10 years experience coaching athletics across a range of disciplines. Alice is currently the National Lead for Junior Participation at Australian Athletics and has played a critical role in the design and implementation of their national junior coaching product – Next Athletics. Alice also oversees the growth and development of her 3 daughters in both athletics and life, and enjoys participating in athletics events with them and the wider club.
Grant Carlton - Club Vice President and Seniors Lead
As the Hornsby Athletics Seniors Lead, Grant is focused on building out the participation and competitive opportunities for our age 12 and up athletes, as well as building an environment for them to have a long-term involvement in the sport at a range of levels. Grant has 6 years’ experience coaching junior skills across all disciplines and supporting senior squad coaching, and is a Level 1 Australian Athletics accredited coach. After a long break from athletics, he restarted his involvement as a Masters athlete several years ago, and is passionate about helping younger athletes not lose that connection and involvement in the sport. He is also the father of two very different athletes (one of them chose to do race walks), giving him real-time hands on experience supporting young athletes through their formative years.
Monika Branley - Middle Distance & Endurance Coach
Monika brings 10+ years of personal running experience across track, road, and cross-country to our endurance squads, helping all our athletes run further and faster. Monica has gained her accreditation as a Level 2 Advanced Recreational Running coach, and has experience coaching athletes ranging from beginners all the way up to marathon competitors (and we believe they all finished too). Her philosophy is to design safe, progressive, athlete-centred programs that support long-term development and help our athletes improve over a long and glittering athletics career. When she is not at the track, she works at the SAN Hospital in the radiology department, and is the mother of two young athletes who are growing into their full potential.
Sunz Singh - Sprint Coach
Sunz is an overqualified coaching expert, with a passion for helping community and young athletes realise their full potential – whether that be a PB at a local interclub event or national representation. He has over 10 years of experience coaching track, field, and road events in New Zealand and since 2019 has been the Athletic Performance Lead for the NZ All Whites Men’s, U23, and U20 national football teams. He holds a sport science degree, along with post graduate qualifications, and has expertise in strength and conditioning, performance testing, and athlete rehabilitation. His coaching focus is on athlete improvement, confidence, and enjoyment which he combines with his lifelong passion for sport and athletics.
Phoebe Pegg - Multi Events
Phoebe is our multi-event specialist, who can coach almost anything, based on her past experience as a nationally competitive heptathlete into her late twenties. Whilst life may have got in the way for several years, Phoebe is now reigniting her passion for athletics both as a competitor (in true Masters style), and a coach. She has 4 years of coaching experience whilst at University, and is currently working towards her coaching accreditation and Sports Trainer Level 1 qualification. Her experience as a multi-event athlete brings strong diversity to our coaching team as well as insights into the stages of athlete development and balancing challenging loads across competing disciplines. Phoebe will be coaching across a range of disciplines and inputting into our holistic athlete development.
Sam Westlake-Cann - Throws coach
As a former international shot put and discus thrower, Sam will be leading our throws department (despite that representation being for Great Britain). Sam has a background in community roles including mentoring, education and rehabilitation programs for older adults, as well as coaching experience across multiple disciplines, including StarTrack children’s athletics program. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Sport, Fitness and Coaching, HND in Coach Education and Sports Performance, as well as multiple strength and conditioning certifications. Combining his unique mix of community mentoring and sports experience, he likes to bring a high-performance mindset to his coaching, with a people-first approach.
Max Grishchenkov - Triple Jump and S&C Coach
Max has a deep background in sports science, holding a Master’s in High Performance Sport (Strength & Conditioning), a Bachelor’s in Sports Science & Coaching, a Level 3 Australian Athletics coaching accreditation, and is currently lecturing at Macquarie University in Sport and Exercise Science. He has a range of experience applying this knowledge to athletics, having coached across sprints, hurdles and horizontal jumps since 2011 at a range of schools across Sydney, including leading several competitive junior athlete squads (ages 14-18). In his younger years, he also made the unusual choice of selecting triple jump as his main event, but boasts a solid PB that anyone in our club would be proud of. Max’s coaching is centred around building strong fundamentals for athletes, regardless of their specific discipline, and building a lover of athletics whilst unlocking each athlete’s potential.
Renato Garcia - Junior Skills Lead
Renato will coordinate our junior skills coaching program, leveraging his mix of sports management and coaching experience, including designing tailored training programs and supporting youth pathways in multiple sports. Renato holds qualifications in Sport Coaching, Pedagogical Science (Learning & Coaching Science in case you didn't know) and Sports Management, and is currently a professional boxing coach, with strong crossover expertise with athletics in speed, strength, and movement development that will help build strong fundamentals in our junior athletes (and he is well equipped if they step out of line…). He believes that ages 8-13 is the critical window for athletic development and skill transfer across sports and is excited about the opportunity to help provide athlete centred training, focusing on long-term development over short-term results to our junior skills squads.
