National Academy – our 2018 intake

Saturday 20th October 2018

National Academy athletes gather at Carronvale House this week (photo by Julie Mollison)

scottishathletics has launched the next ‘year’ of our key development programme, the National Academy – and are delighted to welcome 13 new recruits.

The original project was set-up and started back in 2013 with the intention being to better support and direct young athletes, their coaches and parents as they progress towards senior status.

Two residential camps each year plus on-going work and support are provided for athletes in the Year 1 and Year 2 bands with certain performance standards required before invitations are made to join.

For autumn 2018, we have 13 young athletes and their coaches and parents coming on board via the various event groups with five from Jumps, five from Endurance, two from Combined Events and one from Throws.

Congratulations from all at scottishathletics to these athletes and their coaches and clubs on making the National Academy and to the clubs involved in their development over recent years.

Athlete	Coach	Event Group	Club
Eloise Walker	John Lees	Endurance	Edinburgh
Kane Elliott	William Sharp	Endurance	Falkirk
Joe Ewing	Carol Sharp	Endurance	Edinburgh
Scott Brindley	Mark Stringer	Jumps	North Ayrshire
Bera Ajala	John Scott/Keith Ridley	Jumps	Edinburgh
Isla Calvert	Sandra Hardacre	Endurance	Livingston
Carmen Neat	Ken Allan	Jumps	Aberdeen
Keira Waddell	Douglas Cameron	Throws	Edinburgh
Murray Fotheringham	Colin Sinclair	Mulit Events	Giffnock North
Ellie O’Hara	Linda Nicholson	Jumps	Edinburgh
Reuben Nairne	Brian Donaldson	Jumps	Glasgow City/Giffnock North
Georgina Ledingham	David Arnott	Endurance	Corstorphine
Callum Newby	Derek Johnston	Multi Events	Edinburgh

Julie Mollison is now our National Academy leader (and Team Logistics Manager) after being involved in the Performance Team for the past year or so and having held Team Manager roles at Glasgow 2014 and Gold Coast 2018.

‘The National Academy camp at Carronvale always gives us an opportunity to welcome the new Year 1 Athlete ‘Teams’ into the programme – providing a busy few days of education, training and team building which will set them up well for the winter season ahead,’ said Julie.

‘Equally it was great to catch up with some of our Year 2 Athlete ‘Teams’, to see how they have progressed in the past 12 months and develop the education themes further with them as they take another step towards Senior athletics.

‘The clear goal of the National Academy is about retaining our best young athletes so they are in the sport to make an impact at Senior level. It is pleasing to note we are seeing strong retention figures.

‘It is also about working with the Athletes, Coaches and Parents involved to develop knowledge and provide tools around a range of performance factors (in partnership with the Scottish Institute of Sport), as well as sharing in the experiences of those who have navigated the performance pathway before.

‘All of that will hopefully stand these youngsters in good stead to achieve the outcomes of the programme in the years ahead.’

scottishathletics regard the targets of the programme to be as follows:

*Improving the retention rate of our best age group athletes into the Senior ranks

*Increased representation on GB U18, U20 and U23 teams

*Increased representation on GB Senior teams and GB Performance Programme

*Greater number of young athletes on CWG 2022 team and beyond

*More medals at CWG 2022 and beyond

scottishathletics regard the benefits of the programme (as appropriate) as follows:

*Coach Education Opportunities

*Athlete Education Opportunities

*Parent Education Opportunities

*Subsidised Event Specific Competition Opportunity