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The rain held off and the Robins opened up their doors on Saturday 21st April to give their local community the chance to try some athletics. The club made full use of the weather and had activities taking place both inside and out to give people the chance to try lots of different events.

The event was split into 2 sessions, with primary school children starting at 9am and then secondary school children trying some athletics from 10am. The club already has a waiting list and used the event as a chance to allow the athletes on the waiting list to get involved as well as give total newcomers the chance to experience what the club has to offer. 

Before the event, the club worked hard to advertise the event as widely as possible. Using a mixture of the resources provided by England Athletics and some of their own, the club advertised in the local paper, to all primary and secondary schools in NW Leicestershire, on facebook and contacted all their waiting list. The hard work promoting the event paid off with 28 newcomers turning up to try some athletics.

The club recorded some video clips of the day - and it's reproduced here as part of our "100 Days To Go in 100 Seconds" request (we added the copyright-free music).

All children were given the chance to try a range of disciplines with javelin, shot put and running taking place outdoors and lots of Sportshall athletics taking place inside the new facility at Newbridge High School. Wherever you looked there were smiles to be seen on the children’s faces.  It was also good to see many of the more experienced junior robins on hand to encourage and work with the children taking part; this was a good chance for them to gain some experience helping out and get a taste of coaching/volunteering.

Following this event the club is starting a new weekly session which will see a lot of the people that attended this event and from the waiting list take part. When parents and children arrived at the club, they were signed in and information about the club was available.  From the event the club has recruited 4 new volunteers/helpers and has had interest expressed by a number of others.

Club Chairman, Paul Cox said, “We have never hosted an open event like this before.  From today it has shown us that maybe this is something we could do again in the future.”  Jon Shaw, coaching coordinator, added “It was great to see the children trying athletics for the first time, it was also great to see our older athletes helping out and engaging with the younger children, the day was a great success!” 

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