By Owen Morgan
Welsh Athletics has published a document outlining how the governing body plans to get athletes back in action as soon and as safely as possible.
Interim chief executive James Williams has reassured the nation’s athletes that the governing body is doing all it can to lift the sport’s lockdown appropriately.
Williams said: “Although we’re unable to remove the suspension of athletics activity at this time, we wanted to reassure our athletics community in Wales that we are working hard behind the scenes to plan and prepare for a safe return to athletics as soon as we’re able.”
Announcing Welsh Athletics’ roadmap for Lifting Athletics out of Lockdown, Williams said: “We appreciate everyone’s patience and frustrations, and hope that this roadmap – and the further detailed guidance for different elements of our sport that we’ll publish next week – will provide a starting point we can all work with to get athletics back up and running in Wales, safely.”
The comprehensive roadmap is mapped against the four phases of the Welsh Government’s guidance, Unlocking Our Society and Economy plan – Black, Red, Amber and Green.
Dates for implementing the athletics’ plan will be dictated by the lifting of Welsh Government restrictions.
Thanks to the team for working tirelessly to pull this together. More guidance to come as and when welsh govt update their own guidance. Safety of everyone involved in the sport will remain our primary purpose during this process. https://t.co/RdYRrsV0YZ
— james williams (@jwilliams1500) June 1, 2020
Welsh Athletics is currently liaising daily with colleagues in the other home nations’ athletics federations to ensure consistency and clarity where possible, despite the differences in the speed and nature of the easing of restrictions between the individual nations.
During lockdown, the governing body’s website has acted as a hub for information, activities, advice, support and guidelines relating to lockdown for athletes.
Williams said: “We would like to once again thank our clubs and passionate volunteers for their ongoing support, and we look forward to continuing to engage their views on how we can best support them during this challenging period.”
The suspension of athletics activity until the June 19 remains in place and coincides with the next scheduled Welsh Government review of restrictions.
The governing body hopes there may be some changes announced by Welsh Government on that date to allow some activity to resume.
The suspension of athletics competition currently remains in place until June 30.
The roadmap document, along with extensive information, guidelines and advice for athletes of all levels and abilities, is available on the Welsh Athletics website.
You can also read it here: