Presidents’ Chat

Hello and welcome to our July / August newsletter.

It’s been a very busy May and June. With leagues, international representations, personal bests, club investments, where do I begin.

So firstly, congratulations to a few of the many. Jemma Reekie (coach Andy Young) was been selected to run for Great Britain in the 800m at the World Athletics Championships in USA where she reached the semi-finals. She’s then been selected to run for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham (1500m / 800m). Sprinter Ross Patterson (coach John Kinder / Alasdair Barker) has also been selected for the Commonwealth Games running in one of the para events, the T38 100 metres sprint. Good luck to both.

Oliver Patton (coach Robert Hawkins) was selected to run in the European under 18 championships in Jerusalem and was one of the youngest if not thee youngest to compete in the competition and in his event the 2000m steeple chase where he qualified for the final in the searing heat and finished a respectable 15^th in the final.

Investment in the future. The club is pleased to report in partnership with Inverclyde AAC, Shettleston Harriers, Giffnock North AAC and supported by the Ross Foundation, the club has purchased a photo finish timing system from HS Sports.  This will help bring more athletics competitions to the track and hoping promote athletics in each area the clubs represents.

To support this, the club is looking for two or three people to take an interest in becoming a photo finish official.  The club will pay for this. Each club would like to put at least two people on the introductory level 1 photo finish course to be held at Linwood ON-X Sports Centre on either the 24^th or 25^th September to be confirmed.  No prior experience required, just an interest in timing athletics and is comfortable using a computer.  If anyone is interested please contact myself for further details.

Also, if we are to organise competitions, we will need to pull together a core set of people to organise the meetings.  Typical roles will be

Declarations – tick the arrival of the athlete for each event and provide the athlete with bib numbers.

Stewards for helping track officials with the results.

Results team – to record the result on a computer ready to circulate and publish on the club web site.

Best wishes, Jason Pender, Club President

Jasonpender69@outlook.com

Club Coach Eleanor McNicol

Sadly, we say goodbye to Eleanor McNicol as a girls’ endurance coach in the club who finished up teaching secondary French and German by taking early retirement and has decided to move up north to resettle in the Aviemore area.  Eleanor like many of us came into coaching following her two children Judith and Claire who competed for the club and became more involved by coaching. We really appreciate the time she gave the club and wish her all the best in new adventures. Rosalind Teasdale runs a business baking exceedingly delicious cakes and presented Eleanor with a super parting cake and mini cakes for her group and others at the track (I’m glad I was there).

Events Calendar

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

The national championships are being held for each age group in August. You enter individually for these events and details are on the Scottish Athletics website: https://www.scottishathletics.org.uk/age-groups-3/

Remember to enter before the closing date.  If you need your Scottish Athletics number for the entry you can request it from Victoria Muir our club admin officer.

With the imminent arrival of new photo finish kit it might be possible to organise a test night on Tuesday 23^rd August for 100m and 800m races. To be confirmed.  This could also be used to help the club select teams for the Scottish Relay Championships on 10^th September at Grangemouth.

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:

kilbarchanaaccomms@outlook.com, kilbarchanaacsecretary@outlook.com, johngrodger@outlook.com, jasonpender64@outlook.com, callummatthews63@gmail.com

Thanks to Kay Carmichael a parent volunteer who has agreed to volunteer as the club press officer to coordinate information to the social media outputs.  

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/

The club black hoodies is a popular one with the young athletes.

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 and we’ve organised a level 1 assistant club coaching course for 12^th November  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.