Dear Provincial/County Secretaries,
Thursday, March 12th, 2020 at 12.30pm
Statement from Athletics Ireland regarding the coronavirus (COVID-19).
Athletics Ireland continues to closely monitor the coronavirus outbreak and the advice from the National Public Health Emergency Team and the HSE. The health and safety of the Athletics community is our priority and we are determined to be calm, calculated and proactive regarding precautions to limit the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19).
As announced by An Taoiseach this morning the following measures will come into effect from tomorrow morning until the 29th March, 2020.
- schools, colleges and childcare facilities will close from tomorrow (Friday)
- Indoor mass gatherings of 100 people or more and outdoor mass gatherings of more than 500 people should be cancelled
Where it is possible to work remotely people should do so. Public transport will continue and shops will continue to remain open. Mr Varadkar said we need the public and businesses to take a sensible approach.
Athletics Ireland is guided by this expert HSE advice and we will physically close our office from tomorrow morning but all staff will be operating our business from their homes. We are prepared to operate telephones and emails remotely to minimise disruption to our business.
Athletics Ireland is therefore instructing all affiliates to suspend all athletic competitions and events with immediate effect. We understand that this decision will result in inconvenience and disappointment to many athletes, coaches, officials, volunteers and supporters. However, we are sure that all will understand that this decision is taken in the best interests, not just of the athletics community, but of the Country.
Club training is down to the discretion of the individual club, but the recommendation from Athletics Ireland is that club training sessions be cancelled at this time.
The situation is changing rapidly and we will continue to monitor developments and update our website and communication on a daily basis.
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Notes from Higher Grounds - The ultimate altitude training travel guide
When Irish steeplechaser Elizabeth Egan was planning to visit Kenya for a training holiday a decade ago, she had difficulty finding information about the best places to visit, where to stay, and if it was possible for a female to travel alone. After weeks of searching, she stumbled across the website of Lornah Kiplagat’s High Altitude Training Centre (HATC) in Iten, and arranged the first of many trips to the ‘Home of Champions’. She knew then that this sort of information should have been easier to find, and in 2010, she set about researching a travel guide which would detail how to get to Iten and 14 other popular altitude training venues across the globe.
Notes from higher grounds: an altitude training guide for endurance athletes (Kukimbia Huru Publishing) is the product of almost 4 years of research, and provides the information that any distance runner or their coach would need to arrange an altitude training trip. Any athlete that wants to run with the Kenyans or stride along the Albuquerque trails made famous by Paula Radcliffe, can now do so. Ifrane, Mammoth Lakes , and Boulder have suddenly become more accessible, and places like Falls Creek and Addis Ababa are no longer reserved for elite athletes with connections there.
Egan says ‘I hope that Notes from higher grounds will enable more athletes to sample altitude training, East African running culture, and the beautiful mountain trails of places like Font Romeu, St. Moritz and Flagstaff’.
The 368-page full-colour publication includes practical advice, spectacular photographs, interesting features, and light-hearted blog excerpts detailing the author’s own experiences and observations. It is available to purchase through http://www.altitudetrainingcamps.com/.
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