Scottish Athletics chief executive Mark Munroe has spoken of his desire to increase opportunities for Scottish athletes with the introduction of Scottish teams entering some international events, rather than GB teams as it is currently.
Scottish athletes have seen strong levels of representation within GB teams in recent years, but by sending Scottish teams to international events, the number of athletes being exposed to international competition would be increased dramatically.
Nothing has been confirmed, but Munroe has spoken of his desire to explore the opportunity, starting with potentially sending a Scottish team to the European Cross-Country Championships.
“Scottish development and success has been recognised by British Athletics who have also committed to find opportunities for more Scottish (and home country) athletes to compete within a European context, possibly starting with the European Cross Country Championships,” he said, speaking to PB Magazine.
“We will ‘watch this space’ closely on that one as we think there is a lot of potential there for athletes and clubs.”
Munroe is also targeting the improvement of the technical events in the new year.
Scottish athletes have had another outstanding year on the global stage, but the biggest successes have once again come on the track and the road.
And so bearing this in mind, Munroe has spoken of his desire to improve the facilities, coaching and support for athletes in technical events.
“We have some very good technical eventers and pockets of excellent coaching,” he said.
“However, we need to take to look at a more systematic approach to ensure the development of coaching expertise, quality facility access, competition opportunities and athlete support, to ensure we have a consistent conveyor belt of talent as well as a greater depth across events."
Munroe is also keen to push forward with plans to build a national indoor training centre, which is estimated to cost £5-6 million. The planning is still in the early stages but Munroe is confident of making progress in 2020 while another focus is to further develop the Athletics Trust Scotland, which has been established to try to raise more funding for the sport in Scotland that can be directed into projects that support athletes, coaches, clubs and officials, as well as aiding potential facility developments.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here