Chief Executive Mark Munro
I
write this on the back of a massive high of pure Scottish camaraderie at the Lindsays National XC at Falkirk and SPAR British Champs in Glasgow and following a number of weeks of Scottish record breaking successes on the international circuit, not least a young Jemma Reekie. However, I’ve woken up this morning with the harsh reality of widespread allegations of unethical ‘cheating’ by the UK’s most successful athlete of all time and a rotten culture set by a few individuals within our UK body. It is disheartening when we work so hard to develop our wonderful sport in this country from the grassroots right through to elite athletes and coaches.
Mark Munro Chief Executive Scottish Athletics
@SALMarkMunro
Athletics in Scotland must be resilient and keep believing we can grow McColgan) and Adam Craig (Inverclyde AC/ Steve Vernon). The younger athletes in Scotland are also showing they can compete well with a number dominating events across the UK. I am also looking forward to seeing how well Scottish Para athletes have wintered as a number of them will be commencing their road to Paralympic glory over the coming weeks.
Whilst we are not perfect and there are lots of areas to improve on, the sport in Scotland in well connected, both strategically through the National strategy (Building a Culture of Success) and in practice, on the ground where it really matters. I think all the athletes, coaches, volunteers, supporters and spectators at the recent national XC at Callendar Park showed the true spirit of the sport and demonstrated resilience on a terrible day in tough, tough conditions. The word resilience is the key and athletics in Scotland must be resilient whilst these challenges go on around us at UK and global level. We must believe in what we are trying to achieve in Scotland and continue to drive forward setting the (moral) bar high and sticking to our principles.
will be communicating these in due course. We have also seen a growth in the number of licensed coaches in the country this year, with over 3,000 coaches now holding a license. This reflects the growth in club memberships across most clubs in the country and demonstrates excellent proactivity by clubs.
We should also congratulate the many talented coaches in Scotland who continue to break boundaries with athletes working under their leadership and again we’ve seen Within the wider UK context, I’m sure that from helplessness will come opportunity. We record breaking performances at senior will work with sportscotland, UK Sport, UK level. Athletics and the home countries to support There have been well-documented British the reconfiguration of the sport across the record breaking performances by Jemma UK and imminently both our Chair, Ian Reekie (Kilbarchan AAC/Andy Young) over Beattie, and myself will be contributing to 800m, 1500m and the mile indoors, the UK Sport’s review of UK Athletics to as well as Jake Wightman over 1000m help create a plan to move the sport move (Edinburgh AC/Geoff Wightman). forward. Reflecting back on the positives, we must thank all clubs, coaches and athletes the number of athletes competing over the winter has been extremely strong culminating in the largest field in the Lindsays National XC Championships in the modern era.
We’ve also seen national records by Heather Paton in the 60m hurdles (Birchfield/ Benke Blomkvist), Alisha Rees in the 60m (Banchory Stonehaven AAC/Leon Baptiste) and Nikki Manson in the high jump (Giffnock North AC/Ray Bobrownicki), as well as a host of Scottish junior records.
************************************* We were also delighted to unveil a couple of new partners over the last few months. 4J Studios, who have been fantastic supporters of the sport with their existing sponsorship of the 4J Studios National Athletics Academy for the younger talented athletes, have now extended their partnership to include both the indoor and outdoor track and field seasons as well as the Annual Awards in October (10). Tru Wealth, who many athletes and clubs will be familiar with, have agreed to sponsor the annual Road Race Series which includes both the young athlete road championships and the senior road relays, as well as the overall programme sponsors for the Grand Prix. These events cover 5km to the marathon. We are extremely grateful to Paddy Burns and Chris van der Kuyl at 4J Studios as well as Graham McKnight from Tru Wealth for their fantastic support of the sport in Scotland.
Finally, thank you to everyone in the sport, no matter your role, this has been another fantastic winter for the sport in Scotland and we wish you all the best for the summer season which will soon be upon us. We also It is also pleasing to see strong We’ve also witnessed great numbers across have an Olympics and Paralympics on the international-class performances by the likes horizon and it is crucial we use our fantastic the indoor campaign and within the Masters of Callum Hawkins (Kilbarchan AAC/Robert role models to inspire us all, but particularly XC Champs as well. Whilst celebrating these Hawkins), Laura Muir (Dundee Hawkhill successes it is crucial that we do not take the next generation. Harriers/Andy Young), Chris O’Hare our eye of the ball in relation to some of the Good luck and thank you. (Edinburgh AC/Terrence Mahon), Andrew younger age groups, particularly at U13 and U15 levels, and I know the development team Murphy (Kilbarchan AAC/Colin Sinclair), scottishathletics Eilish McColgan (Dundee Hawkhill/Liz are reviewing those numbers and trends and
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