Two clubs affiliated by scottishathletics

Tuesday 22nd September 2015

Two recently-formed athletics clubs have been successful in affiliation applications to scottishathletics.

Agreement at a board meeting in Edinburgh on Monday evening confirmed affiliated status for Dalbeattie Running Club and Falkland Trail Runners.

Both clubs are young, having been started within the past 18 months, and are felt to have met a series of requirements set by scottishathletics.

Dalbeattie Running Club, who were only formed 10 months ago in November 2014, has grown from a jogscotland group and indeed have 15 qualified jog leaders and a pro-active approach to coach development.

DRC already have a high participation in local races and are talking about organising a 10k and a half marathon. At the moment, there is no junior section but they have appointed a Welfare Officer.

Falkland Trail Runners were formed in April 2013 and, although they have a minimum age of 16, they have a positive attitude to getting young people involved and arranges kids races alongside their main events.

The club hopes to offer opportunities for the emerging discipline of trail running and the location close to the Lomond Hills and Falkland Estate in Fife are advantageous in that regard.

Falkland Trail Runners has one UKA-qualified athletics coach, a Coaching Assistant and several jog leaders. Two more members are starting coaching qualifications this autumn.

Check out either of these clubs via their websites:

Dalbeattie Running Club

Falkland Trail Runners

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Grant Plenderleith (left) and Jamie McDonald (on right) make the presentation to Arbroath and District AC

Arbroath and District AC athletes, coaches and parents were celebrating last week as the club received a Podium Award from scottishathletics.

These awards reflect both growth and good governance by our clubs and acknowledges the right kind of leadership and sound practice.

Making the presentation to Arbroath were scottishathletics Club Manager, Jamie McDonald, and Team Scotland 400m runner, Grant Plenderleith , who featured in a Q and A with an enthusiastic audience.

Arbroath and District joined the scottishathletics Club Together programme in July 2012 and have made significant strides since then.

There has been a 128 percent rise in athlete membership in three years with rises, too, in the number of volunteers, coaches and officials.

Adding to the growth and reach of the club are a newly-established jogscotland programme (10 members) and a Little Athletics Class for five to eight-year-olds (30 members).

School to club links are also excellent with Active Schools and Sports Development taster sessions in almost every primary school. There has also been support for schools events like the Fun in Athletics for primary and Giant Heptathlon for secondary.

President Winston Webber said: ‘We’re delighted to receive the Podium Award from scottishathletics as confirmation and endorsement of the good things that are happening at Arbroath and District AC.

‘Being part of the Club Together project has been great for Arbroath and District and we’re really pleased with what has been achieved. The CTO post is important and I can see how it has helped us improve our links in the local area, helped on funding issues and raised the club’s profile in general.’

All at scottishathletics congratulate those at Arbroath and District on their hard work in achieving the Podium award. Thanks, also, to Grant for his help with the presentation evening.

Arbroath and District AC club website

Tags: Arbroath and District AC, Dalbeattie Running Club, Falkland Trail Runners, Grant Plenderleith, Jamie McDonald