Home Country Athletics Federations (HCAF) met to debate the suggested changes to the existing age groups set out within the UK Athletics (UKA) rule book, following a period of consultation. The suggested changes were from current age groups of U13, U15 and U17 to new proposed age groups of U12, U14, U16 and U18.

The North East Region kicked off the England Athletics Regional Volunteer Awards for 2023 with an evening of inspiration and celebration at Newcastle United's home ground on 27 October. Board member Janyce Holmes, Region Chair Janice Kaufman and Councillors Lynn Cooper and Chris Betts joined many of the region's deserving volunteers and their friends to enjoy the presentation evening.

The nominations are in, they've all been discussed by our Region Council Awards panels and the decisions have been made! We're ready to announce our England Athletics Regional Volunteer Award winners at each of the nine events around the country. And you can share in the success by watching all the events via live streaming.

The podium has been dominated by England Athletics at the Sporting Equals Awards 2023! Our sport had winners in five categories in a night of celebration at the Royal Lancaster Hotel. Congratulations to Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Zharnel Hughes, Ayesha Jones, Emmanuel Oyinbo-Coker and Leon Baptiste. The Sporting Equals Awards saw 500 people come together in central London to celebrate the achievements of ethnically diverse athletes, coaches,volunteers and communities. Known as the MOBOs of sport, the awards shine a light on emerging stars as well as those already at the forefront of their disciplines. The Sporting Equals Awards pay tribute to the work undertaken to tackle inactivity and underrepresentation of ethnically diverse communities.

In our last Club Support newsletter, we asked clubs to let us know if they had any good practice news that we could share with other clubs. Blackburn Road Runners was one of the respondants and Club Chair John Clucas told us about what they have done to help their members and prospective members in reducing or removing costs to assist in their running journey. Perhaps your clubs feels like they might be able to implement some of these great ideas?

England Athletics is delighted to announce the athletes who have been selected for the Junior Talent Pathway, Senior Pathway and Para Academy for the coming year.

Mental health has been at the forefront of not just our minds at England Athletics this week but the world, with World Mental Health Awareness Day celebrated this Tuesday. We caught up with some key players in the sporting community to find out how they have been affected by mental health challenges, and why running can have such a positive impact.

The National Road Relays returned last weekend to Sutton Park in the West Midlands as clubs from across the country came together to battle it out and see who would be crowned the new national champions. Aldershot, Farnham and District showed their fantastic strength and depth of athletes as they took the 1-2 in the women’s 4 stage race, whilst northern powerhouses Leeds City claimed top spot in the men’s six stage event.

To keep up their fantastic work and to welcome more members to try out running, St Helen’s Striders in the North West recently applied for an England Athletics Club Improvement Fund grant which they gained approval for earlier in the year. We caught up with Richard Seville from the club about why they needed the grant, and what they have been using it for. 

Last weekend saw the inaugural World Road Running Championships take to the streets of Riga, Latvia. A strong team were flying the flag for Great Britain and NI across the three distances bringing home two medals.