Return to training and competition
“Dear members
It’s been a long time, too long many would say. Thankfully, as we fall under the definition of “organised sport” we can open our doors again on Tuesday March 30th. At Finsbury Park this is subject to the facility managers opening their doors on this day too.
As an organised sport and as a member of the governing body, England Athletics, we can operate as per normal providing we are training in a safe COVID environment. This means:
Training and access to the track or running group has to be arranged formally with one of the Club Coaches
We will need to record the names of all who attend training for NHS Track and Trace
We ask that you continue to social distance where at all possible and leave training as soon as it has finished
Plus of course please do not attend training if you feel unwell or have been asked to self-isolate.
Once you leave a training environment, technically we are only allowed to stroll/walk or whatever with one other person. From the weekend of April 18th, the “group of six” rule applies after training.
For our middle and long distance runners I would urge you to use a degree of common sense particularly when it comes to group size and also be aware of the very likely negative reactions from members of the public to seeing large groups of athletes out on the roads or in one location. I think we would all agree that it is important that LH are seen as responsible members of the local community. I hear that the carriageway around Finsbury Park and the Parkland walk are particularly difficult pinch points but as we know all of London’s open spaces have been experiencing high demand. I have asked all the coaches with large groups to take a careful look at how the groups are organised to try and mitigate this problem.
Our coaches have been absolutely brilliant during this lockdown period setting sessions, organising pairs, zooms, WhatsApp groups etc etc, for which on behalf of all of the members, I offer our sincere thanks. However, as the club’s thanks to ALL of our members we agreed at the last committee meeting to extend all memberships by 3 months. Our membership secretary Satu and our treasurer Kris M will be working out the mechanics of how this will work.
The competition schedule is at best “fluid” at the moment. Pencilled in are:
Track and Field
Sunday, April 18th Sprints open meeting at Finsbury Park organised by Zac
Wed, April 21st or 28th, Open meeting at FP organised by Zac
Weekend of May 8th/9th Middlesex Champs, Lee Valley Stadium
Sunday May 23rd Inter Club match: LH vs Highgate Harriers vs Barnet AC at Parli Hill. Details to follow.
Sunday June 20th Southern Athletic League at Finsbury Park
Regarding the SAL, this has been reformatted into a 4-match competition with local clubs, being: LH, Barnet, Enfield and Haringey, Orion and Vicky Park.
We have yet to discuss the “Night of 5k’s”
Road
The only dates I know of so far:
Sept 19th YMCA 10k
Sept 26th Hackney ½ marathon
Oct 3rd Virgin London Marathon
There are probably many others jockeying for a date.
With regard to the track at FP I believe that a full clean of the track surface has been organised, but we are also pushing the facility managers to rectify other deficiencies such as the floodlighting, shot putt fan and jumping pits.
We are, and I don’t use the word lightly, desperate for additional help with running track meetings at FP. We need basic hands-on help with setting up and running track meetings, we need more qualified officials and we particularly need technical help with the electronic timekeeping. For the past 3 or 4 years it has been the same people volunteering and that’s not sustainable. We will be offering a combination of free membership for qualified officials and in some cases small payments to those that can commit to working at track meetings. Details to follow on this but please email me if this is something you want to get involved in.
So, at the moment it just leaves me to say welcome back and let’s keep our fingers crossed that we can have a more normal summer and autumn.
Best
Jerry Odlin