Inter Area Relay event; September 18th Brownlee Centre Leeds
Following the sad death of our Queen yesterday and confirmation that the Armed Forces team would not now be competing (as the Armed Forces are in mourning for 10 days) together with feedback from the Midland Team Managers that they would rather the event now did not take place on the 18th September we have reluctantly concluded that the event should be cancelled.
We have seen the DCMS guidance on grassroots sporting events stating that events do not have to be cancelled but on balance given the above and the likely proximity of the date of our event to the state funeral we feel we have been left with no alternative to the decision we have made.
We apologise to all the selected athletes as this was to have been the inaugural relay event for U17 and under 20 teams. We remain fully committed to extend the athlete development and representative pathway to those age groups. Thanks also to all the officials who had volunteered to help with the event.
Realistically re-scheduling the event will be very difficult, if not impossible, over the next weeks and months due to the number of road and cross country relay and league dates. We will use our best endeavours to hold the event sometime in Spring 2023 as the athletes will still be in the same age groups.
We will aim to work with the other areas, teams and the Home Countries, to get as many teams involved and we will try and give as much notice as we can of the new proposed date.
Steve Gaines
Northern Athletics
9th September 2022
