Dear Blog,
Here are the league positions and club points scores of TOMORROW’S Midland Track League at Telford. There aren’t any!!!!!!!!!!!! And there won’t be!!!!!!! Yet again we have an event which has been cancelled!!!!! Very late notice, very, very late notice that the track hasn’t got a certificate from UKA so we cannot have a League Meeting there as there would be no insurance cover.
Now besides the obvious consequences about points for clubs with promotion and demotion at stake in the League set up and the difficulty in re-scheduling a meeting in a very crowded calendar, we have an illustration about how the sport is operating at two levels. We have the established clubs promoting road, country and track events who operate under all the safety rules and regulations of the sport and on the other hand we have an increasing number of events put on and organised by commercial ventures who are driving a coach and horses through the regulations. Example:- not a million miles away from Coventry, not a million years ago, a race was held …. Where was the first aid??? What happened to cause a cock up in the timing??? Why did the recording of the position of the runners break down?? Why was no Event Licence displayed??? Why was there no redress for the competitors who paid many quids to participate?? If the Midland League Meeting had gone ahead at Telford, questions would have been asked of the clubs. Many questions. But the commercial races just carry on regardless with no concern about the possibility of sanctions. Not that the athletic authorities have either bothered to pursue this flagrant breach in our sport or troubled to impose any kind of penalty. Until a tragedy happens at one of these micky mouse events, the great and good who run our sport will continue to look the other way.
So it seems that one part of the Olympic Legacy for the club runner seems to be to cancel events ….. four and counting. Sad.
Colin
P.S. Tomorrow, it is going to rain anyway, so it means we will not get wet. So there is a ray of bright sunshine afterall?
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