‘Team effort makes athletics the most successful sport in Scotland’ – Scottish Athletics

Wednesday 1st January 2025

Photo by Bobby Gavin

As I look forward with anticipation to what 2025 might hold for scottishathletics, I have been reflecting on my first three years as Chair of the organisation, writes David Ovens.

When I joined as Chair in 2021, we were emerging from the worst of the Covid pandemic’s restrictions but was still dealing with its ripple effects. Our membership levels tumbled during this period, for a variety of reasons, including the inability to hold competitions and the closure of facilities up and down the country.

Many in our community struggled with mental health challenges due to isolation, lack of routine, and uncertainty about the future. While scottishathletics did all we could during this period to retain some level of activity, including staging virtual and socially-distanced competitions, it was a huge relief for everyone when the return to normality happened.

Since then, as a governing body and as a community, we have rebuilt and have emerged stronger than ever.

The last three years have seen record success for Scottish athletes on the world stage, whether at the World or European Championships, the Olympics, the Paralympics or the Commonwealth Games, on the roads or in the mountains or cross country.

Wherever you look, we have seen our athletes beating the best in the world and it has truly felt like a golden era for athletics in Scotland.

To add to that, we have seen our young athletes succeeding at age group level on the global stage too, which provides hope that our golden era may extend some distance into the future.

Success on the global stage is built over many years and starts at the grassroots.

The importance of creating strong foundations and strong pathways in the sport cannot be overstated. It is the network of volunteer Officials, coaches, parents and other helpers who form the backbone of our sport, giving up their time to support our young athletes as they develop.

Our club system is second to none in the world and provides a coherent pathway for developing athletes from schools to general participation, event specialisation, competition and then onto success.

Everybody has a role to play in our sport and when we all work together, we can achieve great success.

As governing body, we work tirelessly in tandem with our volunteers to co-ordinate their effort and to ensure the success of our sport.

As Chair, I am well aware that some people will criticise the national governing body from time to time and will want things done differently and it is important for me to listen to these voices and, where appropriate, to feed this back to the team. This is so we can seek to improve things when that is required.

However, I am pleased to say that the vast majority of the people I speak to in our sport recognise the significant efforts which the fabulous team at scottishathletics puts in for the benefit of athletics in Scotland. As Chair, I want to acknowledge that and thank Colin Hutchison, our CEO, and his team for all of their efforts during the year.

As we look to 2025, there is a lot to be confident about.

Our membership numbers are now at record levels. We have more role models at the elite level than ever before and our young athletes are performing well through the pathways. We are truly building a culture of success in Scotland and we have the strong foundations which give us confidence that this will be sustainable.

However, we will undoubtedly face challenges during the year ahead, particularly in relation to our facilities up and down the country, as local authorities continue to tighten their belts and look to sports facilities as soft targets for cost savings.

As we know from the impact of the Covid pandemic, this is short sighted and can lead to unintended consequences, particularly a decline in physical and mental well-being across communities.

With limited budgets, scottishathletics are unable to finance facilities itself, but we try to influence local authorities where we can and to work with local clubs to help sustain local facilities where possible.

Against this background, many of you will be wondering what the fate of Grangemouth Stadium is going to be, and the honest answer just now is that I don’t know.

We have led a working group with a number of stakeholders including the local clubs, community and businesses over the past year or so to see whether we can develop a business plan to keep Grangemouth stadium open.

We have been in detailed negotiations with Falkirk Council, discussions are ongoing and we should be better placed to provide an update one way or another in January or February.

However, the scale of the monetary challenge to take it from council ownership into sustainable community ownership is huge, as you can imagine, and if the facility is to have a sustainable future, it will require a significant team effort and commitment from a range of stakeholders.

At this juncture, we are not able to share more because the many financial details are at a very delicate stage.

To finish, I would just like to say a heartfelt thank you to all of you for efforts and support during the year, whether as an athlete, coach, official, parent, spectator or helper.

It is our collective effort which makes athletics the most successful sport in Scotland and with your ongoing support, the successes which we have seen in recent years will hopefully continue for many more years to come.

I hope you have a Happy New Year and a successful 2025.

David Ovens

Photo by Bobby Gavin

+++

Tags:
David Ovens