East Wales Track & Field Officials Secretary 

East Wales are seeking to appoint a Track & Field Officials Secretary to continue the excellent work established by the late Linda Cushing. 

The appointment is on a voluntary basis and the term of office is initially for one year, renewable at the East Wales Region Annual General Meeting; generally held in June each year. The terms of reference are set out below.

If you are interested on taking on this role please contact Chair@eastwalesathletics.co.uk by Monday 24^th August 2020.  

Terms of Reference:
a) Attend East Wales Regional Meetings (either in person or via video link)
b) Represent East Wales Region at Welsh Athletics Track & Field Officials committee Meetings (either in person or via video link)
c) Promote, East Wales officials’ education and personal development.
d) Assist with maintaining a register of East Wales Officials, in conjunction with Welsh Athletics Officials Secretary.
e) Liaise with Welsh Athletics in all matters relating to officials, including courses and the deployment of officials.
f) Promote Officials’ Conferences.
g) Update officials on all officiating developments.
h) Assist with the implementation of the strategy for recruitment and development of new officials, and the retention of officials within East Wales.
i) Nominate officials of the appropriate levels for regional events
j) Assist with the appointment of officials, including Chief Officials, for all regional Championships and events promoted by East Wales, including joint promotions.
k) Establish links and liaise with Clubs within the Region 
l) Notify clubs of requirements for officials at regional events

Hi East Wales Endurance Athletes and Coaches
I hope you are all well and keeping safe. Thank you to all the coaches and clubs who have continued to provide training plans and suggestions for athletes during these difficult last few months. And well done to athletes for keeping training and remaining fit and healthy.
An update on the East Wales endurance programme. Normally myself and the support coaches would be deciding who to invite onto the East Wales endurance programme for next year (2020-2021). Those athletes who have actively engaged in the programme this year (2019-2020) would be re-invited. We would also look to see who else deserved to be invited. The programme is for athletes from school years 9 – 13 for the 2020-2021 school year. Therefore we would be looking at which athletes moving into year 9 this year would be invited onto the programme (there are a number of strong athletes in this school year who would be invited) and whether there are any older athletes who have significantly improved and would be deserving of an invite. We would also look at athletes invited last year but who did not engage in the programme, and decide if any of them were worthy of an invite again this year or not.
We would also normally be shortly releasing dates for both the regional training days and the hub training sessions for 2020-2021, with the first regional training day set for the end of September as we start to prepare for the cross country season.
However we are not currently sure what format will be possible with the East Wales endurance regional programme for next year. There are promising signs off lockdown easing, groups beginning to train together again (following social distance rules) and the potential of some sort of athletics competitions in Wales by mid to the end of August (though with significant differences to what athletics competitions have looked like previously). However it is still a very variable situation, and therefore can not clarify further details as of yet for the East Wales endurance regional programme. Therefore we will wait for further clarity before inviting athletes and coaches onto the programme. However, if you coach any athletes not on the programme last year who you believe should definitely be invited, or indeed work with any athletes invited onto the programme last year who are no longer engaging in athletics or no longer deserve an invite in your opinion, please let me know. Also, if there are any coaches who you believe deserve to be invited onto the programme, please let me know. We will take these opinions into consideration when invites are sent out, whenever that will be.
Finally, as always, if you have any questions about anything athletics related, please feel free to ask.
Cheers
Steve Mitchell(East Wales Welsh Athletics regional coordinator for endurance)

James Williams confirmed as CEO of Welsh Athletics

Welsh Athletics announce that James Williams has been appointed to the role of Chief Executive on a permanent basis. James had been in the role of interim CEO since January of this year, taking over from Matt Newman who moved to become the full-time CEO of Run 4 Wales.

All of us at East Wales Athletics offer our congratulations to James and wish him well in his role. We look forward to working with him.

Full story here>>https://www.welshathletics.org/en/blog/post/james-williams-confirmed-as-ceo

At Welsh Athletics we have been working hard with Sport Wales, British Athletics, the other home country athletics federations and other partners to plan and try to keep the sport as active as possible during these unprecedented times.

As we know, the sport of athletics is diverse and we want to keep in touch with as many of you as possible. As a result, we are launching the ‘Ask Us’ series of regional webinars with the aim of trying to further connect the full athletics community of Wales. 

REGISTER HERE

The aim of the ‘Ask Us’ sessions is to be as open as possible and will be looking to provide some brief updates but, most importantly, to also engage with attendees and allow for questions and discussion. The webinars will feature James Williams (Interim CEO of Welsh Athletics) as well as all Heads of Department who will be available to both listen and answer questions as appropriate.

The feedback and questions will also help to provide more focused and relevant support for the sport in Wales.

The sessions will take place from on the following dates:

‘Ask Us’ (East Wales): Thursday 21st May 

‘Ask Us’ (South Wales): Thursday 28th May 

‘Ask Us’ (North Wales): Thursday 4th June 

‘Ask Us’ (West Wales): Thursday 11th June

Sadly – the Track & Field Interregional championships are cancelled for 2020.

Welsh Athletics took the decision this week to furlough a number of staff members – the decision, which was approved by the Board, was based on the inability for those staff to undertake their roles in a meaningful way. The financial factors was also a strong consideration, and we continue to explore ways of reducing our expenditure to ensure the minimal amount of impact on the medium and long term finances of Welsh Athletics.

All staff members have been incredibly professional during this very difficult period, and I want to put on record my thanks to them all for their hard work during this period.

 For info, these are the staff members being furloughed and who will be backfilling these roles in the short term;

 Please note that Steve Jones will continue in his role as compliance officer.

 Due to the way the roles are funded, we are not permitted to furlough any staff member in the performance department. 

Finally, we continue to update the guidance to members, updated competition calendar and member FAQ’s on our website.

Please let us know of any challenges your club/members are having at this time. Welsh Athletics are keen to ensure that they support clubs in the most appropriate manner during the lockdown period. 

 Kind Regards

Welsh Athletics Corona Virus impact – Update & Event Postponements

Athletics shares the same goals as everyone else – protecting everyone from the Corona Virus and saving the NHS. Please be smart, do not train in groups, respect the health guidelines, look out for each other, stay physically active, stay well #SaveTheNHS #Coronavirus.

Welsh Athletics & UKA are now advocating the suspension of all organised athletics activity. A growing number of Welsh Athletics Clubs are now putting restrictions on training sessions – List here.

Whilst these restrictions are in place we’ll be collating and looking to provide opportunities to Stay Safe but Stay Competitive

ALL WELSH ATHLETICS EVENTS ARE NOW POSTPONED UNTIL THE END OF APRIL

This includes a number of Welsh Representative Fixtures

MAJOR WELSH, UK, & INTERNATIONAL EVENT POSTPONEMENT STATEMENTS:

• Cardiff Bay 10k, ABP Newport Marathon, Welsh Castles Relays
• SIAB Schools Cross Country, 21st March
• Virgin London Marathon
• Great Welsh Marathon
• European 10,000m Cup and European Mountain Running Championships moved to 2021.
• European Athletics U18 Championships scheduled for 16-19 July in Rieti, Italy, will now not take place in 2020 – any new date will be communicated in due course.
• European Throwing Cup 2020, originally scheduled for 21-22 March in Portugal and earlier postponed, is now cancelled
• Tokyo 2020 Olympics postponed until 2021