Athletics

England Athletics, together with Sport England, has invested considerable thought and effort into making Athletics work in West Yorkshire. This investment has come in the form of the McCain Athletics Networks.

What Are Athletics Networks?

Athletics Networks are clusters of clubs working strategically with other local key partners to develop the sport of athletics in that area. McCain Athletics Networks will be multiple clubs (often comprising of a mixture of track and field and off-track) working together in each area. McCain Athletics Networks will seek to drive up the quality of coaching, links with community groups such as schools, competition in clubs (inter and intra club) and also seek to develop the all round quality of provision within clubs in the network.

West Yorkshire is unique in that it has 3 athletics networks where as all other regions have 1 per county area. The 3 networks are Calderdale (1 of the pilot networks nationally), Bradford and Leeds. Representatives from these networks meet regularly with partners from education, West Yorkshire Sport, England Athletics and the 5 Local Authorities to fulfill the objectives of the networks across West Yorkshire.

Athletics in schools

England Athletics is working with two key partner organisations to pull together a single competition framework for athletics in schools that can also be used in our community clubs. The programmes have seen over 60000 young people involved in short format athletic competition in 2009 alone. In 2010 there are plans for nearly 200 events nationwide in both formats involving schools in England.

Sportshall Athletics and QuadKids are two modified competition formats that offer youngsters the first taste of an athletic experience in their formative years. Both formats complement each other in that they can be deployed in the indoor, Autumn/Winter and early Spring period (Sportshall) and outdoor during late Spring and Summer (QuadKids) months.

Schools' athletics framework

Our competition framework for schools athletics in England was endorsed by DCMS in Summer 2009. To see the framework for athletics in schools, including which skills, activities and competition formats are relevant for each Key Stage please download the document England Athletics - Framework for Athletics in Schoolson the right hand side of this page. England Athletics presented its schools athletics competition framework to the National Competition Manager Network in December 2008 but you may find it useful to read through the slides from the presentation for further information.

Athletes

Work continues also with with current athletes to improve the standards competitors across the region. This has been aided by the introduction of the Power of 10 from UK Athletics.

Looking for a club inWest Yorkshire? See our clubs page, all these clubs are working toward clubmark and they work with West Yorkshire Sport to improve athletes across the region.

Contacts

For more information on athletics in West Yorkshire please contact:

Lucy Birkenshaw

Club & Coach Support Officer
England Athletics - North & West Yorkshire

E lbirkenshaw@englandathletics.org
M 07824 302927 F 0161 223 5588 W www.englandathletics.org

Clubmark accredited clubs

Bingley Harriers & AC Shipley BD17 6TB
Halifax Harriers AC Halifax HX3 0AQ
Holmfirth Harriers AC Honley HD9 6QT
Spenborough AC Spenborough WF15 6LW
Ackworth Road Runners Pontefract WF8 3QX
Pudsey & Bramley AC Leeds LS18 5SG
Leeds City AC Leeds LS11 5DJ
Wakefield Harriers Wakefield WF2 8TY
Leeds Carnegie AC Leeds LS6 3QS