England Athletics Free Download
Through our Athletics & Running For Everyone @ Home campaign, we’re supporting 11+ year old children to stay active at home. That’s why we’ve made our Athletics 365 Handbooks (1 & 2), normally a paid-for resource, completely free until 30 Sept. The handbooks include information on how to complete challenges and fun activities at home, whilst measuring and recording progress
Find out more at this link: Here
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.
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!
| 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: |
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:
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!
From the English Schools AA:
Dear friends,
We are all aware of the challenges that have been thrown up by the Coronavirus in all areas of our lives, and we can only hope that the disease doesn’t touch any of you directly or indirectly over the next few months.
On behalf of English Schools Athletic Association, I wanted to update as many of you as possible on where we are and how we hope to overcome the challenge we are facing with athletics in schools for the summer term.
We had hoped that, by postponing the First Round of the Track & Field Cup we could stage this round on the dates of the Regional Round. It has become clear over the last day or two that, for a variety of reasons, this will not be possible, so the decision has been made that this year’s Schools Track & Field Cup will be cancelled. All entries to this year’s competition will receive free entry to the 2021 Cup competition. As the competition is completely staffed by volunteers, as is the whole of the Association, we will not be in a position to refund payments to schools that have entered, but this will be held over until next year.
At this stage, we do not intend to cancel the Track & Field Championships or the Combined Events Regional Rounds. We have asked counties not to commit to paying any hire charges or first aid fees but ask the relevant groups if they will take a provisional booking and wait until later for confirmation. It may be that sporting events are not allowed to hire first aid or ambulances at that time, so that is another area of insecurity.
Regarding the Track & Field Championships, we are working on a variety of contingency plans, and hope that we will be in a position to hold an event of some sort. The last option for us would be outright cancellation, but we want to give ourselves as long as possible before making that decision. We recognise that, for thousands of young people every year, this is their Olympics and for thousands who have gone before, their first memories of major competition are our championships. We do not aim to lose them without a fight!
Regarding the Combined Events Championships, we can, if necessary, postpone the regional events to the weekend of September 12th and then stage the final one week later than originally planned, on the weekend of September 26th. The venue at Bedford will be available, but the regional events will rely on other venues being available, which we don’t know at this early stage. The Race Walk Championship would fit into the new weekend.
With every press conference the situation changes and becomes more complex, so we want to remain optimistic for as long as we can before taking any drastic action. The Association is already committed to spend more than £50,000 this summer on events that may not take place. We cannot afford to commit any more until we have some certainty.
Finally, please stay safe and we look forward to seeing you all, fit and well, when we come out of the other end of this crisis.
With best wishes
Chris Cohen CBE
Honorary Secretary