Scottish Athletics chief executive Mark Munroe has spoken of his desire to increase opportunities for Scottish athletes with the introduction of Scottish teams entering some international events, rather than GB teams as it is currently.
Scottish athletes have seen strong levels of representation within GB teams in recent years, but by sending Scottish teams to international events, the number of athletes being exposed to international competition would be increased dramatically.
Nothing has been confirmed, but Munroe has spoken of his desire to explore the opportunity, starting with potentially sending a Scottish team to the European Cross-Country Championships.
“Scottish development and success has been recognised by British Athletics who have also committed to find opportunities for more Scottish (and home country) athletes to compete within a European context, possibly starting with the European Cross Country Championships,” he said, speaking to PB Magazine.
“We will ‘watch this space’ closely on that one as we think there is a lot of potential there for athletes and clubs.”
Munroe is also targeting the improvement of the technical events in the new year.
Scottish athletes have had another outstanding year on the global stage, but the biggest successes have once again come on the track and the road.
And so bearing this in mind, Munroe has spoken of his desire to improve the facilities, coaching and support for athletes in technical events.
“We have some very good technical eventers and pockets of excellent coaching,” he said.
“However, we need to take to look at a more systematic approach to ensure the development of coaching expertise, quality facility access, competition opportunities and athlete support, to ensure we have a consistent conveyor belt of talent as well as a greater depth across events."
Munroe is also keen to push forward with plans to build a national indoor training centre, which is estimated to cost £5-6 million. The planning is still in the early stages but Munroe is confident of making progress in 2020 while another focus is to further develop the Athletics Trust Scotland, which has been established to try to raise more funding for the sport in Scotland that can be directed into projects that support athletes, coaches, clubs and officials, as well as aiding potential facility developments.
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