Athletics campaign is left in disarray

The track and field season has been put on hold because of the Covid-19 crisis.

The first two months of the new season’s Turnbull Tommy Clay Track and Field Development Series of matches have had to be abandoned while the club’s annual Friskney Half Marathon has been postponed in the hope that it may be possible to rearrange the 2020 race in October.

Initially cancelling the first two monthly North of England Track and Field League fixtures, the regional league officers have now also cancelled the final two matches scheduled for July and August.

The English Schools Athletic Association Track & Field Schools Cup competition and the 2020 ESAA Championships in Manchester have both been understandably called off.

Lincolnshire and Humber Associations have had to pull the plug on their joint Track and Field Championships, planned for the weekend of May 30-31 at Hull and Boston.

The future of the planned reintroduction of the County Combined Events Championships at Boston and the Lincolnshire hosting of the traditional under 13 and under 15 end of season Inter-County fixture, also at Boston, await developments and further specific directions from the Government and England Athletics.

Looking back, the club’s six-match junior cross country series of races and the 2019-20 Sportshall Athletics series of events at The B Hive on Punchbowl Lane were both successful promotions.

The introduction of a combined events sportshall athletics programme was particularly well received.

Youngsters contested an octathlon, taking part in eight different individual sportshall running, jumping and throwing events and were awarded points for performance according to the IFTA national scoring tables.

Seven Gold Tops were selected as members of the Lincolnshire Sportshall Team for the East Midlands Regional Championships, scheduled for Grantham on March 15.