Chief Executive Mark Munro

Iwrite 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.

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.

Within the wider UK context, I’m sure that from helplessness will come opportunity. We will work with sportscotland, UK Sport, UK Athletics and the home countries to support the reconfiguration of the sport across the UK and imminently both our Chair, Ian Beattie, and myself will be contributing to the UK Sport’s review of UK Athletics to help create a plan to move the sport move 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 witnessed great numbers across the indoor campaign and within the Masters XC Champs as well. Whilst celebrating these successes it is crucial that we do not take our eye of the ball in relation to some of the younger age groups, particularly at U13 and U15 levels, and I know the development team are reviewing those numbers and trends and

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.

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 record breaking performances at senior level.

There have been well-documented British record breaking performances by Jemma Reekie (Kilbarchan AAC/Andy Young) over 800m, 1500m and the mile indoors, as well as Jake Wightman over 1000m (Edinburgh AC/Geoff Wightman).

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.

It is also pleasing to see strong international-class performances by the likes of Callum Hawkins (Kilbarchan AAC/Robert Hawkins), Laura Muir (Dundee Hawkhill Harriers/Andy Young), Chris O’Hare (Edinburgh AC/Terrence Mahon), Andrew Murphy (Kilbarchan AAC/Colin Sinclair), Eilish McColgan (Dundee Hawkhill/Liz *************************************

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 have an Olympics and Paralympics on the horizon and it is crucial we use our fantastic role models to inspire us all, but particularly the next generation. Good luck and thank you.