Olney Runners Juniors – possible post-Covid restart in 2022

 

Having stopped in the March 2020 lockdown, a lot of effort has been made behind the scenes and we are hoping to offer Juniors sessions again in early summer 2022, but with a number of significant changes. 

 

What has caused the delay and changes?

 

• We use Ousedale car park to start/end sessions as the safest option to meet close to Olney’s safest, well-lit pavements/streets/parks suitable for junior running - but the school cannot guarantee it will open the car park at night over the winter. 
• New systems are needed to handle registration and Juniors’ Covid status to comply with England Athletics and Government guidelines.
• We need a higher adult-child ratio than sports that train on enclosed sites, and we rely on many volunteer Run Leaders and other adults, some of whom have now moved on.

 

What happens next?

 

Many previous members will have moved on, so we cannot restart with the old structure of groups and sessions.  We plan to return with a smaller membership, but cannot yet make final decisions on new age limits (previously 12 - 17), or membership fees.

 

Sometime before the restart we will contact and explain the new systems to:

• Current OR adult members with children that may wish to join Juniors,
• Parents of previous Junior members who replied to the Sept 2020 survey indicating their children would return if they could, and
• Parents who, since lockdown began, have already enquired directly about their children starting as new Juniors.

 

Any further queries to David Shakespeare at juniors@olneyrunners.org.uk

 

Thank you for your understanding, and we look forward to returning when we can.

Olney Runners Committee, 7 October 2021