News

Tony Piersall passes away

Social 

It’s with great sadness that Tony Piersall a long standing coach at Invicta East Kent passed away on the Sunday 26th July. Our deepest condolences to all of Tony’s family. Tony was passionate about athletics and inspirational to those he coached, we at Invicta East Kent will miss him very much.

Tony was an enthusiastic and dedicated Invicta coach having coached many athletes over the years to different levels. Tony regularly travelled to Lee Valley for workshops, training and competitions with his athletes on Saturday’s. As a runner, Tony himself trained on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Canterbury High School, and he coached multi-events on Mondays and Wednesdays

He was an active multi-events coach in the mid-1990s when we were based at the University cinder track

As a runner his membership goes back to the 1980s - he was a veteran in his 60s when we moved to Canterbury HS and he liked long road races... Tony ran the London Marathon in 2012 as well as the New York marathon in 2006 when he was chuffed to break 5 hours by some 5 minutes

His last ever 10 Mile race was as a 74 yr-old on home turf at Canterbury in January 2019 on the same course for his best 10mile in 2012

Many of Tony’s athletes and friends at Invicta payed their condolences on social media -

Emily Higham – Tony was my very first athletics coach and was such an inspirational guy. He is the reason I fell in love with the sport and I will be forever grateful for that. He always used to drive us to workshops at Lee Valley and back on Saturdays.

Lauren Macey – Tony will be missed by us all at Invicta, he coached me for almost 12 years and got me to where I am today.

Kirsten Griffiths - Tony ignited a love of hurdles for Charlotte and she blossomed under his coaching. He will be greatly missed

Thank you Tony for many great years and for getting so many youngest into athletics.