Email from Athletics Ireland

 Email from Athletics Ireland

To Our Members,

 

We wish to assure you all that we are working extremely hard for our membership to facilitate a return to competition as soon as government guidelines allow. Just this week we have submitted our second formal proposal in recent weeks to the Sport Ireland Expert Group for athletics to facilitate a safe return to competition in a format acceptable at Level 3. As a non-contact, outdoor sport we believe that we can facilitate safe training and competition in a gradual and structured manner within government guidelines. We have submitted evidence and noted our experience at supporting this approach.

 

Our internal Covid Group has provided you with weekly/fortnightly updates and we continue to lobby and engage proactively with many groups to support our cause. From weekly meetings with the Sport Ireland Expert Group, monthly meets with the Minister of Sport and collective lobbying with key decision makers to name but a few strategies. We all want a return to competition for all as soon as possible and we are all frustrated by some of the inconsistent government decisions in regard to a return to sport.

 

On a positive note we are one of the few Olympic sports that facilitated Championships over the Summer and we will continue to facilitate events for our exempted High Performance athletes e.g. The 30Km High Performance Walks time trial this weekend just gone. We are also delighted to have published competition dates for National Cross Country and National Indoors that we are working towards.

 

We have also lobbied hard to allow training to continue for School aged children during the recent lockdown and this has allowed us all to support the physical and mental well-being of members during the dark winter months.

 

As you can appreciate the R number is currently going in the wrong direction to support a prompt return to competition but we must all act in the best interests of our nation and follow the government advice which has our best interests at heart. We wish all our members a safe and Merry Christmas and please be patient during this exceptionally challenging time for our nation and our sport.

 

 

Best Regards

 

Hamish Adams                                   Georgina Drumm
Chief Executive Officer                       President