Chair’s Blog 1st May 2012.

Yesterday was one of those when I thought we are beginning to get somewhere. In the morning I was invited to the Regional Disability Games at Lee Valley where 150 or so athletes and a very good number of volunteers and officials put on a great day. The star of the day was Yvonne Jacobs of Enfield & Haringey who organised the event and invested loads of her time making it a wonderful day. Our thanks to her and everyone else who gave their time so willingly and the athletes who produced a great day of competition.

The South West London Network review took place in the evening. After being the last London Network up and running SWLAN has made a lot of progress under Chair Chris Brooke. Interestingly the most enthusiastic club represented (the others were positive as well) was Stragglers Running Club from Kingston. They have been able to increase their coaching and leadership capacity within the network and generally feel they have benefited from a more structured approach and the activity plan of the network. They have 600 members already.

On the administrative front we have agreement to hold three each of Assistant Coach and Leader in Running Fitness courses in London in late June/early July. These will be posted on the London and England websites when confirmed. Their purpose is to allow clubs to increase their numbers of qualified people before the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

If you watched the London Marathon you will be pleased to hear that the leading UK male, Lee Merrien of Newham & Essex Beagles, has been picked for the Olympic team.

This weekend it is the Olympic Park test event for athletics, the British Universities Championships, held along with some invitational events for international athletes. Along with many London based athletes taking part will also be our officials and volunteers training for the real thing. The evening session will feature the invitation events.