'Team Pryer’
Helen Pryer
Helen Pryer has rapidly established herself as one of the country's most-promising female sprinters following her breakthrough season in 2008.
A late-starter in the sprinting stakes, Helen initially began her ascent through the sprinting echelons back in 2004, reaching the 200m final of the Olympic trials and making her debut international appearance representing England and Great Britain. Her dreams of international success were short-lived however as she sadly lost her mother to cancer the following year and acquired a catalogue of incessant injuries.
Helen endured a couple of torrid years in the injury wilderness before
she decided to transform her training regime: changing her coaching setup
to an entirely new support team of specialists. Helen immediately saw
the rewards, and under the guidance of new strength and conditioning coach
John Shirley, rehabilitation specialist Jim Adkins and sprint technical
coach Tony Seville she made her most impressive start to a season yet
in 2007: 
winning both sprint events at the Surrey County Championships
and defeating former Olympic finalist Donna Fraser at the Bedford
International Games. 'Team Pryer' was born.
An exciting few months of competition followed in which Helen climbed over 40 ranking places to enter the UK 200m sprinting elite. Her successes were duly noted by U.K Athletics - who officially recognized her as one of the 'Most-Improved' track and field athletes in the U.K.
The winter season of 2007/08 saw the introduction of internationally
renowned Osteopath and Corrective Exercise Consultant Matthew Wallden
to the setup and Helen began work with life-performance coach Gill Harvey-Bush 
to enhance her psychological approach to elite-level sprint competition.
Her most successful seasons ever were soon to be ahead of her.
In 2008 Helen claimed the national 200m titles in the UK Challenge and Inter-County Championships, a Championship record at the Surrey County Championships and a new scorching personal-best time of 23.29s in the BAL Cup Semi-Final in July, where she took more than a quarter of a second from the longstanding Windsor Stadium 200m record. She claimed the biggest prize in the UK domestic athletics league winning the season-ending 2008 'UK Golden Challenge' prize - awarded to the most consistently successful British-League based athlete of the year.
Helen's incredible run of form inspired Linford Christie to offer his mentorship, and she completed a deserved deserved move in 2009 to regular international competition abroad after a long-overdue selection by U.K Athletics bosses.
2009 heralded her finest season ever with three personal best 200m times. This included a stunning win in Cuxhaven, Gernany on July 22nd over 2009 200m World Top-Ten ranked ChaRonda Williams of the USA in a new p.b. of 23.20s – claiming the A Qualification Standard for the Commonwealth Games!
Helen finished the 2009 season ranked as the 4th fastest 200m runner in the UK – a career-high national ranking for Helen. An exciting season beckons for 2010 and Helen has already earned her first individual GB vest of her career to represent Team Great Britain in the world-televised Aviva Glasgow Indoor International.
With the right opportunity and backing, Helen is convinced she fulfil her dream of successfully representing her country at the 2012 Olympic Games.
A promising future awaits her…
Linford Christie
Linford Christie serves as Helen's mentor and sprinting coach. Linford was inspired to offer his services to
Helen following her excellent run of form in 2008 and he has recently become the newest member of 'Team Pryer'. Helen is
thrilled to benefit from Linford's experience of achieving success on the international stage and his vital wisdom of how
to handle the extreme pressure of international competition. She has begun frequent sprint training with his elite training
group of established international athletes and Olympic finalists 
and thus thrives off the closely-knit training rivalry and
competitive exposure.
Linford is so universally well known that extolling his achievements seems almost academic! He is the only British man to win Olympic, World, Commonwealth and European 100 m gold medals. He remains the British record holder at 100 m, with the 9.87 s he ran at the 1993 World Championships. By the end of his track career Linford had won 23 medals overall, more than any other British male athlete before or since. He was appointed MBE in 1990 and OBE in 1998.
Matthew Wallden
Matthew Wallden serves as Helen's Osteopath, Corrective Exercise Consultant and Performance-Conditioning Specialist. His role is to assess Helen's physiological adaptation to her intensive training, ensuring her body is as finely-tuned as possible to withstand the rigours of elite competition and minimsing her chances of acquiring injury. He has been a driving force behind Helen's transition into the international elite and works closely with all members of 'Team Pryer' to ensure Helen's training approach is as holistically balanced as possible.
A leading faculty member of the internationally renowned C.H.E.K Institute of Corrective Holistic Exercise Kinesiology, Matthew is one of the world's leading specialists in the field of exercise science. He has consulted for various top sports teams including Chelsea Football Club, Charlton Athletic Football Club and Surrey County Cricket Club, and has lectured at four major UK Osteopathic colleges and many international post-graduate courses for medical, rehabilitation and fitness professionals. He is currently involved in several book publications, including his upcoming book "The Hamstring Syndrome", and sits on the advisory board of the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies.
John Shirley
John Shirley operates as Helen's strength and conditioning coach. His role is to develop Helen's strength and power base to the superhuman levels necessary for her peak performance throughout the rigours of the competitive track season. He also works on Helen's corrective stretching and remedial sports massage sessions, essential for minimising her chances of acquiring injuries and vital in enhancing her rapid recovery from training.
A renowned conditioning coach and practitioner of the C.H.E.K Institute
of Corrective Holistic Exercise Kinesiology,
John is positioned
at the forefront of the UK physical-training arena: frequently receiving
glowing endorsements from his clients in both the national television
and sporting magazine media. He has a track record in achieving winning
results and works extensively with elite level athletes from many sports.
John served as a key player in the formation of Team Pryer during 2007 and 2008, introducing Helen to many of the specialists on the team. This has transformed her training methods and facilitated her breakthrough into the international sprinting arena.
Tony Seville
Tony Seville serves as Helen’s track assistant technical performance coach. Tony's role is to tailor Helen's sprint training to ensure she performs technically at the highest-level in the sprinting arena. He revolutionised the way she trained when she began training with him in 2007 and this has been duly reflected in the successes she has since achieved.
A scientist by qualification, Tony adopts a similar approach to Helen's track training, committed to being at the cutting-edge of sprint science developments, and maximising Helen's successes as a result. Tony's technical prowess has ensured Helen has begun to realise her considerable potential and he has dramatically enhanced her sprint specific fitness for the 200m discipline.
A successful former sprinter and protégé of Jim Spooner– coach to Britain’s fastest ever-female sprinter Kathy Cook - Tony is a keen team player with all the specialists in ‘Team Pryer’.
Gill Harvey-Bush
Gill Harvey-Bush operates as Helen's life-performance coach. Gill serves a key role in preparing Helen for the psychological preparation necessary for elite-level competition and her effectiveness has been clearly reflected in Helen's winning run of results throughout 2008. She has been a crucial member of 'Team Pryer' and has been key in shaping and refining Helen's infallible focus to win at the highest level.
Gill can frequently be heard on the radio and she has recently appeared on ITV's Kyle's Academy as a renowned life-performance coach.
Jim Adkins
Jim Adkins serves as Helen's key rehabilitation specialist.
Jim's therapeutic skills were paramount in eradicating Helen's injury blues
over the winter season of 2006-07 after the two injury-plagued years she
had previously endured. Jim's therapy culminated in Helen enjoying her
most successful start to a season yet in 2007 and heralded the start of
her rapid ascension in the UK sprinting rankings.
Jim's collaboration
with strength coach John Shirley also ensured Helen core strength and
posture was optimally developed, as evidenced by her radical new approach
to her sprint training and her resistance to injury since.
Jim works as a renowned rehabilitation specialist to many elite international athletes as the medical director of the 'Berkshire Physiotherapy Centre' in Reading. He has served on the athletic Commonwealth rehabilitation squad during the Commonwealth Games.