Livingston land Podium Award

Tuesday 10th February 2015

Team Scotland long jumper Sarah Warnock helped scottishathletics mark another big step forward for Livingston and District AAC.

The club have achieved Podium Award level in recognition of their progress and governance and also landed a West Lothian Council Community Club Accreditation Award in a double celebration last week.

Warnock joined scottishathletics regional manager, Jamie McDonald, at the presentation night, with Livingston athletes and coaches then enjoying a Q and A session with the recent Senior Indoors gold medallist and under-taking a few training drills.

Watch Sarah jump at the Senior Indoors

Livingston and District joined our Club Together programme in December 2013 and quickly established an additional training night and five Run, Jump and Throw centres. They now have 165 members plus 50 at RJT level to show a 40 percent increase in membership over a 14-month period.

Volunteers are key to that kind of growth, of course, and it is pleasing that Livingston have attracted 24 new volunteers into the sport including 10 coaches/leaders and six new officials.

Coach education is another essential part of the path scottishathletics want clubs to follow and seven event group coach development sessions at Craigswood have been geared towards that goal.

In addition, Livingston are taking the sport into their community and four open graded events staged have seen 887 entries received with 1420 performances. The club have also staged education sessions for the likes of Club Leadership workshops, Child Protection Training, Double Goal Coaching and Leading Athletics.

Congratulations to the committee, athletes, coaches and parents at Livingston and District AAC for reaching Podium Award status with scottishathletics – keep up the good work!

*The club website is well worth others dipping into as a good example of a ‘live and alive’ communications platform both for members or those coming in ‘cold’ wanting to know more about what’s happening in athletics in West Lothian.