Liverpool Harriers’ home Wavertree Athletics Centre is amongst five facilities in the UK to be awarded TrackMark accreditation.
More specifically, the Centre became the first venue in the UK to achieve the accreditation on 10 April 2019, with Liverpool Harriers credited in preparing the submission.
The move was supported by Liverpool City Council who provided funds for indoor and outdoor track resurfacing and cage modification work.
TrackMark was introduced in 2019 with the aim to raise and maintain standards of athletics provision and help ensure that all participants can enjoy athletics in a safe and enjoyable environment.
Speaking to England Athletics about the news, Club Chairman Arwel Williams said:
“TrackMark has raised the profile and bar for our club as we can now get bigger meetings at our venue.
“We were awarded the Northern Junior Championships last year and they were so successful that they’ll be coming back this year, which says a lot about the quality of the facility we’ve now got.
“The council were supportive with everything we had done, and by investing in our facility, and helping us to achieve TrackMark accreditation have ensured we have a competent facility for the future and longevity for our sport.
“Lots of clubs are worried about TrackMark’s costs and that they won’t get support from local authorities.
“We had complete support for all upgrades required, which included adaptions to our hammer cage, and now able to deliver domestic league and championship competition.”
Aside from the venue in Wavertree, other facilities chosen were New Madeley Park (Leigh Sports Village), Chelmsford Sport & Athletics Centre, The University of York Athletics Stadium and The Weir Archer Athletics Centre.
Benefits of the accreditation include adding weight to future funding applications, helping to attract more members to a club, demonstrating they are in line with the National Governing Body and providing operators with independent and professional condition surveys.
Full information about the scheme can be found here.
Picture by Sue Adair under Creative Media Commons
