Weekly Updates Thursday 14th May

The board of Welsh Athletics have agreed to extend the suspension of all athletics in Wales activity to Friday 19th June. The suspension of athletics competition in Wales to the end of June remains in place. Click read more for this weeks updates, challenges and other articles…..

Results:

After weeks of waiting we finally have some results to round up for you, albeit virtual ones!

From the 4th to 8th May the British Milers club held the Roger Bannister virtual mile time trial, four Swansea Harriers took part with Guy Smith in 9th (4.11.0); new signing Ben Williams 64th SM & 134th overall; Matt Kinane (5.04.0) 2nd M50! & 316th overall; Sharon Leech (6.10.0) 3rd W50! & 917th overall, well done to them all!

Welsh Athletics held a virtual 5km over the weekend of 8th to 10th May where six Swansea Harriers were running;
In the men first home was Gabrielius Stuokus (18.11.0) who was 56th overall & 10th SM and Daniel Morgan 61st overall & 12th SM.
Our four women won an imaginary team silver medal with the quartet of Helen-Marie Davies (18.59) 74th overall & 1st W40!; Llinos Jones (19.13) 82nd overall & 1st W35!; Sharon Leech (19.56) 101st overall & 3rd W50! and Penny Kennedy (22.04.0) 156th overall and 5th W50. Congratulations team!

Competitions:

Jumping onto the bandwagon, we have organised our own virtual race, if the uptake is good, we will repeat it monthly. So on your marks, get set and go for our 2km time trial held between 19th & 29th May. You have a 10 day window of opportunity to complete and upload your 2km time. We have selected 2km as this allows our junior members to participate too, and possibly not a too overwhelming distance for some fed up sprinters & jumpers, or maybe some very fed up throwers? In fact, parents can enter too, with some eagle eyed members having spotted the entry link on the fixtures page before official event promotion, with entries well into double figures. This has already thrown up some interesting match ups, not least the club secretary and club chair, it’ll be very interesting to see which one is the quickest club trustee! The whole McAdie and Pierce families are in it too as well as a few of our club coaches Simon, Sophie & Andrew. For all the rules, to enter, instructions and to view a live list of entries click here.

The Role Of Being An Athletics Parent:

Thanks to Lynne Brier our club chair, welfare officer and one of our coaches has taken the time and written an article for us on the part you can play as an athletics parent. The article touches upon some of the positives experienced, as well as some of the challenges including one or two “tips” = Lynne Brier – Being an Athletics Parent.pdf

Webinars for coaches and officials:

Officials:
The next three Thursdays (including today) sees England Athletics putting webinars for officials in the topics of; engaging young people; officiating off track endurance events from grass roots to championships and gadgets and gizmos within track and field. To take part and watch previous webinars click here.

Coaches:
England Athletics have over 20 webinars covering most event disciplines in the next week or two, so there should be something to amongst them to spark the interest of most coaches. To take part and watch previous webinars click here.

Welsh Athletics hold a throws webinar on introducing the glide shotput on Monday 18th May that you can sign up for here. Each week there are a couple of extra videos being uploaded onto their You Tube Channel covering topics such as; Physical preparation exercises, club coach profile/insight interviews and previous coaching webinars. Click here to watch all the videos.

Online Fundraising:

In addition to easy fundraising, Swansea Harriers are now also registered as a charity with Amazon Smile.

AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support Swansea Harriers charity of your choice every time you shop, at no cost to you. When you shop at smile.amazon.co.uk, you’ll find the exact same low prices, vast selection and convenient shopping experience as amazon.co.uk, with the added bonus that Amazon will donate a portion of the purchase price to your selected charity of Swansea Harriers.

To help raise much needed funds for the club, before you buy anything online please consider login in here https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/shac/ and register for Swansea Harriers. At no extra cost to you a percentage of your item will go to the club and there are thousands of retailers to choose from, 100% of the income raised goes back into the club.

What is Starting Blocs?

For any members with very young children who are too young to join the club “Starting Blocs is a fun, exciting program to introduce children to the sport of athletics.” Children will learn the key movement skills needed for a life in sport, in a safe and positive environment, through games that are designed to teach children the foundations of running, jumping, and throwing. They have their own website and the Facebook page shows some great activity videos you can do at home, click here for some ideas.

Annual Membership Renewals:

All those members that are yet to renew their annual membership to the club are encouraged to do so please; you can print a renewal form here ready for when training recommences 2020-2021 Membership Application for New Members & Renewals