M11: The team behind Keely Hodgkinson’s golden rise and pursuit of 800m world record

Painter and Meadows were crowned BBC Sports Personality Coach of the Year winners in 2024.

They remain resolutely modest when it comes to their own achievements, while the results continue to speak for themselves.

The demand for their attention is no surprise.

When Hodgkinson joined Painter, she could run 400m in around 57 seconds and 800m in two minutes and 4.26 seconds. Having lowered those personal bests to 51:14 and 1:54.33 respectively over seven years, she has established herself among the sport’s leading stars.

Hunter Bell was in full-time work when she re-established contact with childhood coach Painter at the end of 2022, having not worn a pair of spikes for five years after falling out of love with the sport during her time on a track scholarship in the United States.

The 32-year-old has gone on to win six international medals, including Olympic bronze, world silver and the world indoor 1500m title.

Meadows famously joked “that ship has sailed” upon learning the former English schools champion had got back in touch with Painter.

But Hunter Bell is arguably as good a reference as Hodgkinson of Painter’s talent for developing athletes, evident once again at this year’s World Indoors when the pair celebrated their respective 800m and 1500m triumphs together on the track.

It is not only athletes who are desperate to join the project.

Some 180 applications were received for the role of physiologist alone, with Rachel McCormick willing to uproot her life from Australia to take the job.

Concerns held by Painter and Meadows over whether M11 was “going to be enough” for McCormick to justify the move across the world were soon dispelled.

“When I was applying for the job, I thought ‘I didn’t know there was a dream job out there, but this could genuinely be it’,” says McCormick, who has published more than 50 research papers.

Having joined in late 2025, McCormick has taken time to pore over data from each athlete, measuring how they respond during and after sessions, and how well they recover and adapt, and is now in the first season of using that to feed into training.

“This is an incredibly elite group, and Trevor and Jenny have a history of success, so I haven’t exactly come in here and revolutionised anything,” McCormick says.

“What I’ve been trying to look for are the small wins. Where can I get the biggest gain without changing or drastically shifting anything that they’re already doing?”