COVID-19 - Return to Competition
UPDATED - EA updated their guidance on 4th August to allow endurance racing up to 3,000m. It can be found here.
Club Chairman Jerry Odlin has issued an update on when competitive athletics and running may return:-
“A further update on all things Covid that relate to running and athletics. As we see every day in the news the general situation seems to be improving, particularly in London. However, I am not expecting any changes to guidelines as to how we or any other community sports groups operate until July 4th. So all the current limits, groups of 6/social distancing etc are still all in play.
As you know we now have the track open in a limited way, and I’m aware that there are ad hoc running groups being organised too, which is great as long as you stick to the rules. As far as track and field competition goes there is some talk of organising some test events in July but only up to the 800m distance and even that would have to be run completely in lanes. The rules and restrictions that are being talked about in organising these kind of meetings does I believe put it outside of London Heathside’s ability or our desire to do so. Maybe in August we’ll take a look at this again. The outlook for road races and even xc races still looks very difficult. No licences are being issued for road races until at least the end of July. You need a licence for any event to get the relevant insurance cover. Many of the larger events, Great North Run etc are already falling by the wayside. I wouldn’t hold my breath on the London Marathon going ahead either. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that we’ll be able to get the cross-country season going sometime in the Autumn.
All this makes race planning very difficult but I am sure your coach would be very happy to help with any planning which looks like is has to look much further in the calendar than you are usually used to.
Lastly, once again a big thank you to all the members, coaches and committee members who have been working hard to get things going as much as they can.
Hope to see you soon or maybe on Strava
Jerry”
More details of England Athletics proposals can be found here:-