News

We have had confirmation this morning that due to Government restrictions Stevenage Borough Council will have to close the track and stadium for all sporting activity until the 2nd of December. England Athletics have this evening comfirmed that all oraganised club and coaching activity needs to stop during this time. Should these regulations change during this period and we are able to resume some kind of organised club training before this date we will let members know via this page, our website and through email. Any payments made for November's sessions will be rolled over into December. Arrangements for December's sessions including our Christmas closing will be emailed to those currently training towards the end of the month. We would like to thank all coaches, volunteers athletes and parents who have been so supportive since the beginning of September to enable us to at least have a couple of months of relatively normal training. We very much hope we can continue from Thursday 3rd December onwards.

Training will take place as usual on Sunday 1st November, Monday 2nd November and Tuesday 3rd November. We are waiting an update from England Athletics as to what will happen from Thursday. We will update this page as soon as we can.

If you attended our March 2020 induction session, are in Yr 7 and above and wish to resume your 4 week trial can you please contact us. Thank you

The club were saddened to hear this week that Vaughan Taylor had passed away. Vaughan was a former chairman of Watford Harriers and a highly experienced coach. He was a familiar face to all those attending athletics fixtures across the county and beyond. Our sympathise goes to Vaughan's family and all those at Watford at this sad time.

Since the soft start back at the track on the 3rd September with just two groups working through the new procedures, the Club will see all squads back in action once a week when the Disability Squad start their winter training. Every event squad athlete is now being offered one session a week by invitation only. The younger athletes are being offered one session a fortnight, but we are hoping to increase this later in the Autumn. This process will carry on with every athlete being offered their sessions a month at a time. So please check emails (including the junk box) as October’s invites will be going out in the next week or so.

We are all getting used to cleaning as we train – hurdles, young athlete’s equipment, throwing equipment and the jump beds. Stevenage Borough Council have kindly ordered the specialist cleaning equipment needed for the high jump and pole vault beds. The Club are funding spray disinfectant for equipment and hand sanitiser for athletes, parents and coaches. The need for regular hand and equipment cleaning is likely to be a necessity throughout the winter and the club is very grateful to those athletes, parents and coaches who are already providing their own personal hand sanitizer.

Thank you to those parents who are letting us know if an athlete is ill and cannot take a training slot.

We are continuing to keep squads separate and regulating the numbers in each group to ensure social distancing is maintained within squads and the squad ‘bubbles’ stay separate.

Athletes who fancy some Autumn competition should have a look at the list on the England Athletics website. These are often event specific or have just a few events only. Currently the first cross country race in the Chiltern League has been cancelled and no decisions have been made about indoor competitions.