2010 News
- News Archive
St Mary's Receives England Athletics Funding
In a move designed to support the future of distance running in England, the London Marathon and England Athletics have announced additional funding to support work focused around St Mary’s University College, Twickenham.
England Athletics will be investing £75,000 into the South West London McCain Athletics Network, which includes St Mary’s as a partner, over the next three years. In addition to this network funding an extra £10,000 of England Athletics funding and £22,000 of money from the London Marathon is being put into endurance specific projects based at St Mary’s.
England Athletics’ Chief Executive Mike Summers said, “McCain Athletics Networks are about clubs and other institutions working together for mutual benefit and for the wider benefit of the sport.
"With St Mary’s we recognised the great potential for work that benefits the sport at a national level and therefore have looked to maximise that opportunity. There is a great level of expertise and experience there, as well good facilities and a huge willingness to work in partnership for the greater good of the sport.
“The London Marathon has an existing relationship with St Mary’s and we have all recognised that by working together we can bring some very tangible benefits to the sport.
“As part of this project St Mary’s will become England Athletics Coach Development Centre for Endurance.”
London Marathon Race Director Dave Bedford said: “We welcome this opportunity to extend our excellent relationship with St Mary’s University College and to work in partnership with England Athletics.
“Since it started nearly 30 years ago, one of the London Marathon’s goals has always been to support the development of British distance running. These projects at St Mary’s will play an important role in nurturing endurance talent and encouraging more people to take up running.”
Prof Dick Fisher, Head of St Mary's 2012 Preparations and Sport Strategy, said: “This new relationship with England Athletics is an excellent boost to our exciting plans with the London Marathon and will be part of a suite of initiatives that can impact on endurance running in this country.”
The type of work done at St Mary’s will include:
- Technical mentoring of coaches on England Athletics National Coach Development Programme by St Mary’s coaching staff.
Delivery of workshops on endurance subjects. - Promotion of open coaching days for coaches on the England Athletics National and Local Coach Development Programmes per annum.
- Developments to bring more adults into running through:
- community Run in England groups based at St Mary’s
- delivery of Leadership in Running Fitness courses to train more group leaders
- delivery of ‘follow-up’ coach training days for leaders
- creation of marked permanent running routes from and around the University
- delivery of an annual London Marathon/England Athletics endurance coaching conference
- Initiatives to bring more young people into athletics through:
- promotion of Run in England 3-2-1 sessions with West London schools and School Sports
- promotion of cross-country or road race leagues / relays for local schools with link up to local clubs
- outreach coaching and talent identification for endurance athletes to feed into clubs
