Honour for coach in sport that 'grabbed her heart'

Christine Still said she started coaching at the age of 18

Gymnastics coach and BBC commentator Christine Still has been appointed an MBE in the King's Birthday Honours list.

Still has been head coach of Park Wrekin Gymnastic Club in Shropshire since 1990 and trained gymnasts, most notably former beam champion Alice Kinsella, to Olympic, Commonwealth, World and European success.

She said she had "no inkling" about the honour and did not know who had nominated her in the first place.

The address they used to inform her of her accolade was slightly wrong, she said, so she was pleased the letter did actually reach her.

She said: "When it came through the post [it was] a very official looking letter and you think 'oh is this good or bad news?' and I opened it up and it was on His Majesty's Service, they'd like to award me an MBE for services to gymnastics and would I like to receive it."

She added she knew of others connected to the sport who had previously received honours, but she never thought anyone would put her forward for one.

"I still don't know exactly who has put me forward. It just says it's for services to gymnastics," she said.

Still, who has covered the past six Olympic Games, started coaching when she was 18, about the time Olga Korbut found fame, catapulting the sport into the spotlight.

She did competed as a gymnast herself, but pursued coaching and achieved "reasonable success", with the first gymnasts she and her husband Colin coached reaching the World Championships in 1978.

In 1984, Colin was made national coach for women and the couple moved to Lilleshall.

There she began to train gymnasts at a junior school before Wrekin College built its own sports hall and a permanent gym was created. She remained there until relocating eight years ago.

"I knew I had a passion to coach," she said.

"It's the most interesting of sports to coach. It's an open-ended sport, there's always something new to learn, a new way to handle children and help them overcome fears or whatever.

"I knew it was a sport that had grabbed my heart and my attention."