Scottish athletes told: Keep active but stay safe

The head of Scottish Athletics has rallied his sport to come together and help fight the ruinous Covid-19 pandemic.
Scottish Athletics chief executive Mark Munro. Picture: Craig Watson/SNSScottish Athletics chief executive Mark Munro. Picture: Craig Watson/SNS
Scottish Athletics chief executive Mark Munro. Picture: Craig Watson/SNS

All sport is on hold currently but athletics has been hit by the pinnacle of its four-year cycle with the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics until the summer of 2021 and knock-on effect of next year’s world championships being pushed into the Commonwealth Games year of 2022.

But Scottish Athletics chief executive Mark Munro is focused more locally and has urged athletics clubs members in this country to help the sport survive the wide-ranging impact of the coronavirus crisis.

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Event cancellations and postponements have been happening over the past couple of weeks as the inevitable consequence of lockdown. A number of the organisation’s small full-time staff have been furloughed with income loss in the first quarter of the year expected to be £200,000 and further hits expected throughout the duration of the crisis.

A statement from Scottish Athletics yesterday read: “The financial implications for scottishathletics as governing body over the coming weeks and months will be significant and we are making a series of cost savings and looking to see where Government assistance is available.”

Munro asked members “wherever possible” to keep supporting their clubs “and ourselves as an organisation via membership fees”.

He has also highlighted a whole range of scottishathletics programmes, measures and activities which will continue to happen during the COVID-19 shutdown and reminded members to seek help around mental health issues if required.

In an open letter, Munro wrote: “We appreciate that there is a lot of uncertainty and many concerns facing our membership across various levels – work, personal life and beyond. “

“It is important that we all stay safe during this period, follow Government guidelines and help each other where we can.

“During this time, we will be adapting our ways of working to ensure we continue to bring an appropriate service to our members and clubs as well as ‘events’ and programmes of support across the various levels of the sport.

“For example, over the coming week or so you should see information on a scottishathletics Virtual Run Challenge Series; we are developing physical challenge events for athletes/clubs as well as continued training and workshops for club leaders, coaches and officials, delivered via online methods.

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“We also have created new partnerships with external experts to provide guidance (financial/HR/club structures) to our clubs during this period.”

Scottish Athletics has also offered Human Resources assistance to its member clubs.

Munro added: “In relation to our financial position at scottishathletics, we have been working hard behind the scenes looking at our projections and impacts for the first and second quarters of the new financial year (April onwards).

“Given that we will see a massive reduction in race levies, a potential reduced income from membership, alongside the withdrawal of the UKA annual investment this year and loss of event sponsor income – our projections are that we will lose around £200,000 in the first quarter.”

He concluded: “We remain fundamentally a membership organisation and look out for communications around our upcoming events and programmes of support.

“Keep active but stay safe.”

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