You may be aware that England Athletics recently updated their guidance “A RETURN TO RESTRICTED TRAINING ACTIVITY AND ABILITY TO ACCESS TRACK VENUES – ATHLETICS AND RUNNING” which included new guidance of training larger groups. 

Going forward it is our intention to comply with this guidance and increase group sizes to up to 12 per coach where it is thought beneficial to our athletes and safe to do. 

The arrangement that athletes/groups will have allocated time slots for training will remain in place for the foreseeable future. The new timings will be advised and will be effective from Saturday 25th July 2020. Where sufficient numbers of coaches/ volunteers are not available to maintain group sizes to 12 or below unfortunately some sessions would need to be cancelled. Every effort to mitigate this happening will, of course, be put in place.

To do all of the above we have to create what is termed as a COVID secure environment and measures are being prepared to ensure that we can create this environment. This will ensure as far as is possible the safety and well-being of everyone involved in club activities.

Please take the time to read the attached risk assessment and overview and make sure that you are happy with the arrangements/ measures to ensure that the facility/facilities that we use are “COVID secure.”

ALL athletes/ Coaches who intend to attend must ensure that prior to every session they conduct a self-pre-activity health assessment:

Main symptoms

The main symptoms of coronavirus are:

A high temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back        (you do not need to measure your temperature)

A new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)

A loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you’ve noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal

Anyone who is symptomatic or has family members who are symptomatic or suspects they have been exposed to the virus are not to take part and remain at home.

 We recommend that you stay up-to-date with government guidance at all times. Government guidance supersedes all advice given by the governing body/club and must be followed at all times.

Social distancing must be adhered to at all times, which will be the current Government guidelines of 2m where possible, or 1m plus mitigations (Avoid face to face contact/ outside environment etc.)

Athlete/ parents must note the following:

“Club activity will always carry a degree of risk associated with the transmission of Covid-19. The risk cannot be eliminated unless we decide not to resume activity until there is an effective vaccine or cure, or the disease is eliminated from the UK.  As an athlete/ parent of an athlete, you need to consider your family/ the extended family unit and in particular anyone who is in the extremely vulnerable category as part of your individual risk assessment. As a club, we will try our best to provide an environment that is COVID secure.”

By attending a training session all parents/athletes will be deemed to have accepted all of the above.

If you have any queries or questions please contact John Skevington directly.