News
First Minister written to over loss of young athlete concerns
05/02/2021 00:00, In Blog / Track & Field /
Our CEO James Williams has today written to the First Minister, Mark Drakeford, on behalf of Welsh Athletics, along with the Chief Executives of Welsh Cycling, Welsh Triathlon, and Welsh Swimming.
The letter raises the serious concern that there is across our sport that in particular the young Welsh people that we represent, develop, and support within our development pathway could be lost from the sport if they continue to be unable to access facilities to train during the Lockdown. It highlights the successful efforts that have been made to allow training to continue for the small group of Lottery-funded athletes and argues that the number of athletes given dispensation to train could safely be increased.
“As a Governing Body, we are very mindful of the need to play our part in reducing the risk of the COVID virus spreading, however, we feel over the last 10 months we have proven that the protocols and systems we have put in place at our Elite training hubs are effective. We have been inundated with comments from athletes and coaches who have been stressing how difficult it is to maintain their training and development within the current restrictions. The longer this continues the bigger the potential of us losing athletes from the sport.
We believe that our environments and safety protocols can be expanded to include those athletes within our development funding tiers and we would like to discuss these options further with Welsh Government and Sport Wales."
James Williams, Chief Executive
- The story is featured on the BBC Sport Wales website
