Update on reopening of the Club (24th May)

It’s still very early days and while some Clubs have reopened, many have not because of the very strict limitations in the guidelines, like the 5k distance from the club, athletes can be no younger than 13 years of age, and groups can be no larger than four, which includes the coach. For many Clubs with a large juvenile membership that can mean really no activity for them yet. A fifth of our membership is too young, only about a third lives within 5k, so that limits our numbers immediately in this first phase, but we can have more than one group at the Club at a time, so that helps, though with only a few coaches living within 5k, that limits the number of groups.

However, we’re continuing to work towards reopening the Club for training. Covid-19 signage has been put in place and surface markings put down, much of which will be familiar to everyone at this stage, but we need to be absolutely sure that we can control movements around the car park and on the grass track and gravel track. A lot has been done but we’re not quite there yet, so we can’t announce a reopening of the Club just yet. The safety and well being of our athletes, parents and coaches is paramount, so this work cannot be rushed. Like many other Clubs, we are being very conservative, but it’s the right thing to do. We want to make sure that we have good systems and structures in place because it’s all about containing Covid-19. We don’t want to spread it and need to be very sensible, taking this first phase slowly, assessing how it goes, and hoping we can grow from there.

We plan to hold a few pilot sessions with a small number of athletes to test our procedures. This will be a trial process for our new pre-booking and attendance systems. The athletes involved will be notified directly, but unfortunately this does not mean the Club has opened to all members. Subject to everything going to plan the Club will reopen to general training, within government limitations, at a later date.