30.Jul.09 Speeding Tickets for Youngsters in South London

Young people from South London were given the opportunity to run fast and get their very own speeding tickets at the inaugural ‘Speed Trial’s’ event at Battersea Park on Sunday. 

The initiative, organised by clubs from the newly formed South London Athletics Network (Belgrave Harriers, Croydon Harriers, Hercules Wimbledon, Herne Hill Harriers, South London Harriers and Sutton and District), saw youngsters from across South London compete in 50m and 100m races with their finishing time then converted into speeds for their speeding certificates.  Many of the young people who took part will now look to join up with the organising clubs to further their training. 

The event will be the first of many planned across the SLAN clubs giving youngsters the opportunity to turn up and race in relatively informal settings, with the aim that they will then go onto join up with clubs.
The races culminated in a demonstration race with senior athletes - Set Osho, international 400m runner, won the 100m in a time of 10.80 seconds.

Bill Laws from host club Belgrave said of the first meeting, ‘it was a good, positive start for these clubs to work together for the first time.  The young athletes who took part had a good experience and now are keen to get involved further’.

The South London Athletics Network (SLAN) a collection of 6 local clubs working together for the community consisting of   Belgrave harriers    Croydon Harriers  Hercules Wimbledon  Herne Hill harriers  South London Harriers  & Sutton & District  with the aim of sharing resources to facilitate an improvement in both the quality and quantity of the provision of Athletics in our clubs geographic area.  SLAN is has been successful in its bid to  obtain funding for this from England Athletics (EA). SLAN needs the services of a single point Administrator to co ordinate the resources of the network members. It has been agreed that this person will probably have a track record in coaching in Athletics to fully understand the interrelationships and responsibilities (both local, regional  & national)  that the role will entail. The Person will need to be competent using IT (basic word, excel and outlook) and have his own serviceable computer connected to the internet. The role has not been fully developed, nor has remuneration been  agreed, but a sum of circa £7 – 10K will be included in the application to England Athletics. SLAN are not an employer so you would be engaged as a consultant with fees being payable. The application has not gone in yet, so we are not looking for specific applications for a specific role however if you might be interested please forward your details and what you could bring to the role to peterrobertkerr@hotmail.com who will then present them firstly by e mail to the SLAN committee members and then for discussion at one of our monthly meetings.