CEO blog: an exciting outdoor athletics season ahead and marathon successes
I hope you are all continuing to enjoy what has been an extremely busy and exciting start to the outdoor track and field season.
With the new age groups for competition coming into force across the UK, it has been great to see so many licensed competitions taking place across the country and the early signs are that the number of registered athletes in clubs seems to be higher than this time last year.
Competitions
Of course, these are early days in the new affiliation year, but it has been fantastic to see such a breadth of competitions being offered for a range of ages and across all the events. I wanted to take the opportunity to wish competitors, technical officials, and organisers the very best of success for this coming weekend’s County Track and Field Championships.
These are so important as local events to support the foundations of our sport. Participants from the age of 9-10 up to and including Masters competitors will enjoy hopefully good weather and a great overall experience. England Athletics is proud to support local county championships.
We know that athletes value quality competition but that local is very much better in terms of being able to travel less than an hour to access competition, but then to potentially do other things with their days. It has been good to see county associations working to revisit timetables and to consider how existing events can evolve and adapt to the needs of athletes in what is such a busy time for people as they balance their sporting and social commitments.
I have had the pleasure of visiting a few early season competitions including the annual Throws Open hosted by Peterborough and Nene Valley AC, which included some fantastic personal performances including a brilliant Under-18 javelin throw from the talented Lucy Bull which we believe is a 2nd UK all-time best at this age group.
It was also good to know that the likes of Joe Dunderdale, Tom Rutter and Charlie Mason were able to get some early outdoor season performances in and the aspiring Hugo Bucher throwing 63.06 as an Under-18.
Such competitions are so important in ensuring we provide field eventers with high quality competition and this, being a Level 2 licensed event, also involved a range of different ages and abilities, putting the needs of athletes at the heart of the experience.
It was great to be able to catch up with coaches who are fundamentally important to the performance and experience of athletes including long serving and world class coaches such as Mike McNeill who continues to support athletes but also coaches by mentoring, developing and nurturing talent.
As you may be aware, England Athletics commissioned a review into field events two years ago and has progressed an action plan to enhance the coverage and provision of field events across England - such is the importance of ensuring that the breadth and depth of field eventers is strong at all levels.
If we can achieve this, then we have an even better chance of transitioning talented young field eventers to competitive seniors at an international and global level. This requires investment in competition, coach development, club development and talent systems.
Togetherness
These early season events have been delivered in parallel to a number of off-track events including the recent and quite wonderful TCS London Marathon. This event is truly one to marvel at. Not only did it realise supreme elite performances including two sub-2-hour times, but also the breadth of inclusion, diversity, and togetherness is something to behold.
I found some of the personal stories and journeys told on that Sunday morning very emotional and it was a timely reminder of the power of our sport to help raise awareness, and much needed funds, to tackle illness, comfort the bereaved, and to generate much needed awareness of good causes.
I was particularly pleased to see that our England Athletics charity Personal Best Foundation was supported through the recent Paris Marathon in such a meaningful way with fundraisers generating over £20,000 towards activities that will break down barriers, and ensure that more young people can enjoy the power of athletics at a community level.
Our annual focus
At England Athletics, we have been working on our next 12-month priorities. Our Board has recently approved our annual operational plan and budget, so all our staff have absolute clarity on priorities and focus areas for how we support the wider sport. During the next 12 months, we will further invest in activities directly aligned to our established strategic plan, Athletes and Runners at the Heart, which was launched in April 2021.
We are nearly halfway through the strategy cycle with the plan due to run through to 2032. We have spent a lot of time as a Board, with our England Council, and our staff, reviewing how we have progressed (our 2025 Annual Report can be seen here) and with the future in mind. We are due to spend more time on what key areas of the sport we feel we need to focus more on in the next half of this strategy cycle, and which two to three big changes we can affect if we are to positively develop the sport for the future. One of the key priorities will undoubtedly be facilities.
We are in the midst of updating our facilities strategy now, but we are very clear that we need a sustainable solution and strategy for protecting and developing facilities for the sport. Of the circa 240 tracks that exist across England, we know that a number are at risk because of the financial restraints facing track owners, often local authorities, and we need to continue to be proactive to influence this situation but also we need to identify how we can generate new funds to invest in such work.
Repairing tracks, supporting their maintenance, but also developing facilities where Parkruns, cross country and other off-track events can be enjoyed is a strategic priority for our sport, so we need a collective solution to tackle this head on as what is largely a non-asset owning sport. We need to collaborate as NGBs with influential and big players such as London Marathon, Great Run Company, Leisure Contractors and Sport England to identify solutions and this is an area that England Athletics is focused on.
Members can expect further investment from England Athletics into coach development, officials’ development, club support, safeguarding, talent development, digital/IT enhancements, our charity Personal Best Foundation, and competition during the next 12 months as we look to support those areas which people believe are at the heart of the athlete experience.
Track and field vision
We have also been engaging with people in both the East, North East and South East about pilot hubs coming off the back of the recently launched Track and Field vision report, more details can be found here, where I spoke about England Athletics’ desire to establish a regional hub in each of the nine English regions over the next year or so, aligning with Vision Element 1 of Local and Regional Collaboration – New Athletics Hubs.
Our project lead Dean Hardman has been leading this engagement, and we want to commission some early pilots during the next few months. We have been encouraged by the interest in this work as we have been with other facets of the vision report, such as coach development, athlete engagement, competition innovation and so on.
We are working with partners across the regions to compile lists of key stakeholders from within and external to the sport that we would then invite to a first meeting to discuss the pilot hubs, with an agenda focused on coaching, competitions and environments. We will create sub-groups focused on each of those three areas and which would identify programmes and activities for the hub to lead, related to each. It is clear from early engagement that England Athletics will need to be heavily involved in this pilot, as will the Regional Councils and our Club Support Managers in the respective region.
At the same time as progressing the initial pilot track and field hubs at a regional level, we've committed to continuing to engage the wider group of people keen to support the vision and empower them and others to create their own hubs organically. If people have a desire to get involved more broadly with the track and field vision implementation phase, then we want to hear from you - please contact trackandfieldproject@englandathletics.org.
We are also looking to develop a toolkit for anyone considering setting up a local or sub-regional hub, and are looking to schedule a meeting for later in May to talk that through and receive feedback. Key areas of hub activity identified through ongoing discussions include:
- Coaching (incorporating Vision Element 5 - Athletics as the Foundation of All Sports). Potential tools might include flying coach activity and open sessions.
- Competitions (incorporating Vision Element 2 – Competition Culture and Vision Element 3 – Digital and Blended Pathways). Potential tools might include virtual hub competitions, recreational track and field, funetics multi challenge, and Sportshall events.
- Environment (incorporating Vision Element 4 – Wellbeing and Belonging at the Core, and Vision Element 3 as above). We are keen to hear from people on creating positive perceptions online and the types of places that create a sense of belonging.
Thank you
Finally, I want to thank everyone for their ongoing work in supporting the delivery of our sport across England. 2026 promises to be a special year for so many reasons with a home European Track and Field Championships and a Commonwealth Games held once again in the UK, in Glasgow.
With England Athletics Championships being held in Bedford this summer and, alongside the UKA Championships, London Diamond League, and future major event bids in the pipeline, the sport is in a strong place - but none of this would be possible without the efforts that fuel our sport at a grassroots local level. This is where the majority of the sport takes effect, and we are very mindful of this.
This segue is a prime time to plug the 2026 Regional Volunteer Award nomination process. This went live recently and we would encourage all of you to think about a deserving selfless individual that you know, to consider nominating them for an award this year, so get nominating!
Nominate hereThank you
Chris