Wiltshire Athletic Association

General

WAA Road Race Update Compton Bassett 5M

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***Race Update from Calne Running Club***

As you are aware, given the current circumstances, many events around the country are being reviewed, cancelled or postponed.

As Compton Bassett 5 Mile Road Race falls into the current guidance timeline for cancellations it has now joined the list of cancellations and postponements.

***League Status 29th March***

The current situation (as of 29th March) regarding the 2020 WRRL is as follows:·

Race NumberEventOriginal DateStatusNew Date
1Devizes Half Marathon5th AprilPostponed4th Oct 2020
2Highworth 5M19th AprilCANCELLEDno 2020 event
3Westbury 5k Series19 May,
16 Jun,
21 Jul,
18 Aug		19 May – CANCELLEDStill Planned:
16 Jun,
21 Jul,
18 Aug
4Shrewton Bustard 10k17th MayCANCELLEDno 2020 event
5Compton Bassett 5 Mile31st MayPostponedNew Date to be decided
6Great Chalfield 10k25 June
7Melksham 10k12 July
8Frome 10k19 July
9Two Tunnels 10k16 August
10Devizes 10k27 Sept

As things stand, there are currently 8 races remaining within the 2020 league, with Compton Bassett 5 currently working to reschedule their event, official announcement pending. Due to these unprecedented circumstances, the current plan will be to adjust the 2020 rules to allow for an 8 race league with the best 7 races to score. Clearly this is an evolving situation and we will endeavour to keep you all updated if anything changes further.

English Schools AA Track & Field Championships 2020 are CANCELLED

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From Chris Cohen CBE,English Schools AA (March 28th 2020):

Dear friends,

I am sure you have been anticipating this email for some days now, but I am writing to let you know that ESAA has taken the very difficult decision to cancel the Track & Field Championships this year. We had looked at a variety of possible contingency plans, but, in the end, the fact that this virus doesn’t look as though it will allow schools to open in the near future, that many of our officials may not be able to support us on a third day, and, in fact, some would not be able to take part as they have been told to stay at home for three months, we have been forced to accept defeat and look forward with even more enthusiasm to next year in Manchester.

Thanks to the hard work of Paul Ponton, our treasurer, who has worked with our travel agent, to ensure none of the hotels would charge us an early cancellation fee, we now know that our costs will be minimised, though, sadly, not completely removed.

This also means that the Home International will not take place, but I have offered the SIAB that we would wish to host it next year instead at Derby, assuming we can get the agreement of the local authority, which we would expect would be no problem.

We still hope to stage the Combined Events and Race Walk on the original date in September, but I have asked Iain Presnell and Dick Bowden to look at how we can operate this with no preliminaries or regional rounds. This will, of necessity, require some form of pre-selection, but, if we are still able to stage it, if the crisis is past, then we will keep you updated as to how this would be done within the size of the normally held event.

I’m sorry to be the bearer of such disappointing news, but I’m sure you appreciate that we have done everything we could to try to stage the event, and will look to the future and better times.
Please stay safe and well.

I will update you with our other plans later.

This may free up dates for the county to use for the County Track & Field Championships in July or September as it is important to get athletics up & running when we come out the other side! Stay safe all.

WAA ROAD RACE UPDATE – AVR Westbury 5k

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**** Race Update from AVR ****

Following advice from UK Athletics that all running events be suspended until the end of May. We have made the decision to cancel the May edition of the AVR Westbury 5K 2020 series. However disappointing I’m sure you’ll agree this is the right decision.

At present we are hopeful that events will be able to resume in June but if not there is still July and August events to come. Once events are able to commence again we will review the situation and if appropriate and possible we will try to reschedule.

For those entered into the May event you can have your entry automatically transferred to the first available event once normal services resume.

Finally I’d like to thank you all for your continued support, stay safe and see you all soon!

Wiltshire Athletics Track & Field May 10th Postponed

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Please note due to updated EA guidance as seen in previous posts, the county track & field championships due to be held on 10th May at Swindon are postponed. We will try and find another date this summer season but we need to see the impact on a congested programme and as you are aware things are fluid. Please keep checking the website and EntryCentral – they will be updated as soon as we know anything!

This is obviously frustrating to all, but every athlete and the volunteers health are important to us all. Keep Safe and follow the NHS guidance!

IMPORTANT: England Athletics Update 24th March

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Coronavirus Statement – 24th March 2020
Athletics in England suspension extended until 31 May 2020

Following the further restrictions on movement put in place by the UK Government last night, UKA and the Home Country Athletics Federations have made the following updates to our previous statement issued on 17 March:
  1. Extending the suspension of all athletics activity in England to the 31 May. [Initially this had been agreed to the end of April]. This suspension includes all organised athletics activity in the UK, including all competitions, formal club activities, running groups, and all Education activity (coach, official, teacher).
  2. Strengthening our position on coaching activity – We are now mandating that all physical coaching ceases, and only be conducted via virtual means during this period. Bringing groups of people together to train, however small, can no longer be permitted under the strict ‘Stay at home’ measures implemented by the UK Government.

These decisions have not been taken lightly and have been made in light of the continuing and real risk to life and to the NHS posed by the spread of the COVID-19 virus in England. We must now do all we can do. We would ask that the athletics community in England continues to help one another by staying connected and supportive of each other whilst at home in these unprecedented times. We will continue to review the situation in line with Government and Public Health guidance.

In addition to providing clarity to clubs, athletes, runners, coaches and officials, we are acutely aware that a number of competition providers have already made the bold decision to postpone their events in recognition that they stand to incur additional contractual costs on facilities that they have booked should they not make that decision now. We will continue to review this decision as the government guidance evolves, but one thing is clear – and that is that athletics, running and sport in general is special and is an important contributor to our way of life, but it is very much secondary to protecting and saving lives at this current time. In its latest measures to contain the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19), the UK Government has announced that everyone must now stay at home except in exceptional circumstances.

From midnight on Monday 23 March, the only permissible reasons to leave your home are as follows:

  • To shop for basic necessities and that should be limited to once a day To take exercise once a day – but alone or with those you live with, no gatherings of more than two people
  • For medical reasons or to care for a vulnerable person
  • To travel to essential work if that cannot be done at home. Further guidance to employers is pending

While athletics is predominantly an outdoor sport that allows athletes to exercise in the fresh air, the message to all of us is clear, we must play our part in containing the spread of COVID-19. We urge our members to utilise the opportunity to exercise as laid out by both governments, but as such, any informal small group training sessions of athletes or face-to-face coached sessions must now cease (*unless they are with your own household members as above).

We have witnessed some very creative home and/or garden-based training sessions (safely of course) during the last week, and we would urge clubs and coaches to continue to be innovative during this period. A number of schools have also been task setting for their pupils and it would be of immense value to continue to engage athletes and your members in similar style tasks for athletics.

There are numerous ways in which people can remain active whether that be core strength training at home, HIIT, Circuits, running and so on (whilst adhering to the government guidance) so we will be actively promoting these. We will of course be pushing out digital content relating to exercising at home during this week thanks to the work of our respective coaching and athlete development team members.

England Athletics CEO Chris Jones comments: “We all have a responsibility to play our part in mitigating risk and in reducing the spread of this virus. It will be deflating to many but if we do pull together and adhere to the guidance issued then we will come through this period. In the meantime we will be working tirelessly as partners to provide value to our member clubs, athletes, runners, coaches and volunteers and will be organising activities and providing resources utilising a range of methods such as online forums, webinars and podcasts that will help people prepare for a time when we can all look forward with renewed optimism as an Athletics & Running family.”

These decisions are difficult ones to make, but right now, it is our shared responsibility to prioritise the health of our local communities by working together to follow the Government guidelines. In doing so, this will ensure that we all get back to competing in the sport we love so much sooner.

Good luck and stay safe!

www.uka.org.uk

www.englandathletics.org

www.scottishathletics.org.uk

www.welshathletics.org

www.athleticsni.org