P OLICY Morgan Lake is one of the athletics stars representing England at this year’s Commonwealth Games
Ahead of Birmingham 2022, SportsNation looks at the way England Athletics and the other home nation NGBs are growing the sport across the country © SHUTTERSTOCK_ABDUL RAZAK LATIF
Growing the game
ATHLETICS
T
he number of people taking part
“The number of people running regularly
in athletics activities in the UK is
increased considerably prior to the pandemic,”
notoriously difficult to measure
England Athletics says. “For example, the
accurately. In its regular Active
number of England Athletics-registered athletes
Lives reports, for example, Sport
and runners increased by more than 100% to
England groups running and multi-sport
over 185,000 in the decade up to 2019 – but
activities together with athletics – which
unfortunately the same could not be said for the
means that someone going for a run from
number of people taking part in track and field.”
home will be counted in the same figure
As with all other sports, the pandemic has
as a discus thrower at an athletics club.
muddied the waters when it comes assessing
The five national governing bodies, responsible
athletics participation data for the past two
for athletics in the UK – UK Athletics, England
years. Therefore, it is perhaps more revealing
Athletics, Scottish Athletics, Athletics
to cast an eye to pre-pandemic numbers.
Northern Ireland and Welsh Athletics – do,
Unfortunately, those show a downward
however, keep figures of their own too.
trend in the number of people taking part in athletics – especially when it comes to people involved in official competitions. “While the performance standards across a number of events continue to impress, the overall number of participants was falling prior to the pandemic. For example, 43 per cent of athletes aged between 13 and 19 who competed in 2016 did not go on to compete the following year,” England Athletics says.
A TRIO OF PRIORITIES Detailed plans to reverse the trend and to © S&C SLATTER
There are now more than 330 full-size, 400m running tracks in the UK
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SPORTSNATION.ORG.UK MAR/APR 2022
increase participation in athletics in the UK were defined in November 2020, when the four
