News

02/12/2020 00:00, In Blog / Road /

This weekend saw the first endurance Regional Development Activity (RDA) sessions of the 2020/2021 season. Training sessions took place at Pembrey Country Park (West); Parc Bryn Bach (East) and Llandaff Fields (South). This year’s programme has seen excellent athlete uptake with 148 athletes registered to attend the sessions across Wales (North Wales RDA session is planned for this coming weekend). This is testament to the hard work of the regional coaching teams and the club coaches who have worked tirelessly over the past year to keep athletes motivated and engaged in the sport.

The regional sessions all shared a similar format with the day commencing with a warm-up including integrated physical preparation (functional movements) and drills (running and race walk drills). The athletes then participated in a grass based aerobic interval running session. Athletes were also encouraged to bring water and a post training snack to the session to support a discussion on the importance of optimal hydration and post session refuelling. The biggest success of the day however was seeing young athletes from across the region training together again for the first time in 2020. This certainly gave everyone in attendance a much-needed boost.

Welsh Athletics would like to thank the Regional Coordinators and support coaches from South Wales (Dan Nash; Lucy Archer; Mark Gold and Pete Ryder); East Wales (Steve Mitchell; Luke Morris; David Rolls and Deb Howells) and West Wales (Neil Thomas; Wayne Griffiths; Rob Campion and Carol Jones) for all their hard work and dedication organising and running the training days. Bethan Davies (CWG Bronze medallist and Wales/GB athlete) and Martin Bell (coach) also supported the days to share their race walk expertise.