Presidents’ Chat

Hello and welcome to our May / June newsletter.

Sadly I start the newsletter with notification of the sad loss of club coach Colin Sinclair who passed away recently. A multi events coach and coach to many of the top multi-eventers in the West of Scotland including many from our club. He will be sorely missed and our thoughts go out to his family, friends and athletes in his group.

Sustrans 5 mile Club Handicap Race: I’d like to promote a club race on Wednesday 8^th June, 7.30pm start. It’s a handicap 5 mile run on the cycle path from Bridge of Weir to the edge of Kilmacolm and back again. Based on your park run times, the slowest head out first with the fastest last. We need a volunteer (ideally on a bike) to be at the turning point just before you reach Kilmacolm (marked 29a on the tarmac). The entries will be captured using the Class4Kids system. It’s 5 miles so should be for age 16 and above. Trophy awarded to the winner first home. Past winners have included the slowest runners so I encourage all road runners and middle distance runners to try and include this one in your calendar. If the handicapper (myself) gets it right you should all be finishing within a minute of each other!

Entries here: https://kilbarchan-aac.class4kids.co.uk/camp/218

Can you please also email myself Jasonpender64@outlook.com with your 5km park run time based on the last three runs or estimated 5km time.

Best wishes, Jason Pender, Club President

Paul Mayes Young Athletes Endurance Award

Is the last newsletter we introduced a new annual award for a young endurance athlete in memory of a former club member Paul Mayles.  I’m delighted to say the first recipient of the award is Oliver Patton for outstanding performances over the past season in particular winning the Scottish Schools Indoor 1500m breaking the Scottish record in the process, winning gold in the under 15 National Road Race and the silver medal at the National Cross-Country Championships.  Oliver is seen here receiving the Quaich from Paul Mayle’s mother Barbara Walton looked on by fellow endurance athletes and club trustees.

Youth Development League

The summer leagues are underway. We compete in the youth Development League for the boys and girls under 13 and under 15 age groups.  If you get an email from John Rodger, Richard Farquhar or Janet Gillham asking you to support the league please do your best to make yourself available. Running in leagues is a points system as well as getting you an experience.

Club Website News and Results

It would be great if anyone who was at the event drop me a couple of paragraphs and perhaps some pictures to publish in the next newsletter or on the club web site. Results and news can be found on our club website here https://kilbarchanaac.org.uk/news/

Scottish Athletics Events Calendar

Full details of events organised by our governing body can be found on the Scottish Athletics web site under EVENT. Link found HERE.

Some events coming up

Date	Event Name	Venue	Type	Entry	Closing Date	Cost
Fri 3rd June 2022	GAA Miler Meet (inc. the Scottish U17/U20 3,000m Championships)	Crownpoint Glasgow	Track	own	?	fee
Wed 8th June 2022	Club Sustrans Trophy 5 mile handicap run	Bridge of Weir cycle path above the river Gryffe	Road Run	Own	6/06/22	0
Sat 18th June 2022	Scottish Athletics Superteams	Kilmarnock	Track / field	Club	6/06/22	n/a
Sun 19th June 2022	Scottish Joint League	Aberdeen	Track / field	Club	t.b.c.	n/a
Sun 26th June 2022	Youth Development league division 2	Grangemouth	Track / field	Club	t.b.c	n/a
9th/10th July 2022	Scottish Combined Events Championships	Dundee	Track / field	Own	23/06/22	fee
Sat 24th July 2022	Throws Grand Prix	Linwood	Field	Own	7/06/22	fee
Fri 29th July 2022	GAA Milers Meeting 1500m & 5000m	Crownpoint Glasgow	Track	Own	?	fee
Sun 31st July 2022	Youth Development league Final	Grangemouth	Track	Club	t.b.c.	n/a

Coaching Women

Ricky Miell passed on an article which is interesting about considerations when coaching women athletes.  “The article linked below was written by a friend’s daughter in law (Connie Draycott). Connie has given me permission to share this article.”

Press Reports

The club has a presence in Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, club web site and circulate press reports to the local press (Paisley Daily Express). If you have a paragraph of news you wish to share please send it to the following people and we’ll try and put it out on the social media:

kilbarchan.web@gmail.com,kilbarchanaacsecretary@outlook.com,johngrodger@outlook.com, jasonpender64@outlook.com,callummatthews63@gmail.com

We are still looking for anyone interested in being the club press officer to coordinate information to the social media outputs.  If you are interested in this volunteer role please contact jasonpender64@outlook.com .

Club Kit and Vests

Donna Matthews holds our club kit and can meet and greet you most Thursdays 7pm to 7.30pm at the track in the portakabin.

Further details on the club website including contact details https://kilbarchanaac.org.uk/kit/

Track Stars Group

The Monday Wednesday group is still looking for a lead coach. We’ve had a good response with volunteers coming forward and those interested in coaching or being mentored into coaching roles but we still need a lead coach to lead the group overall.   We are working on potential solutions but if parents / members are interested in helping in this area here are some roles you might be interested in:

Coach roles – You might have no experience but if you are willing to coach one or two days on a regular basis the club will provide coach mentoring and work towards sending you on formal coach development courses. Persons in these roles will be subject to Disclosure check for child protection purposes.

Volunteer coach assistants – typically school pupils looking to do their Duke of Edinburgh Awards in coaching or keen parents looking to give something back to the community. These roles will support the coaches in delivering athletics training sessions.

Track Stars Admin Support – if you are a parent or adult club member, we’re looking for someone in the background to take register, set up the Class4Kids camps for each training block, deal with parent queries. Training will be provided. Person in this role will be subject to Disclosure check for child protection and security purposes.

If you are interested, please drop jasonpender64@outlook.com an email with what you’d like to pursue.

Coaching Vacancies

There is always a need for coaches across the club this includes road running. If you want to support or shadow existing coaches this might be a route to yourself becoming a club coach. Once the club sees you are committed to regular nights we will pay for coaching qualifications. An idea of coaching courses is available on the Scottish Athletics website: https://www.scottishathletics.org.uk/coaches/qualifications/

If you are interested, please drop jasonpender64@outlook.com an email with what you’d like to pursue.

We are hoping to organise a Assistant Club Coaching course for those that show commitment on Saturday 12^th November at Linwood. Speak to myself or Rupert Williams to express interest.