Youth athletes get their trophies as season comes to an end

Youth athletics celebrated its end of season last week with a trophy presentation to the winners of the last track competitions prior to the summer break.
The Spring Youth Athletics track league provided some exciting moments for the young runners whose season has been hampered by the stop and start nature of athletics programmes due to its problems with facilities.
Whilst athletics will be looking forward to the day when the new facilities at Lathbury Sports Complex opens there was a word of warning from GAAA youth officials as to the complexities the association will face.
From having to adjust to new facilities, to concerns over transport and location, GAAA officials whilst looking forward to what they hope will be a new start, also highlighted their concerns to parents as they encouraged them to keep the momentum going forward to build the youth levels.
Already a number of young athletes have dropped out of competitions in recent years. The problems faced sharing facilities with football further impacting what has been two tough years for the sport due to the global pandemic and the delays in the completion of the Lathbury Sports Complex.
There was, however, no lack of enthusiasm from the young athletes who enjoyed an early evening presentation and then a bit of an out-of-the-box competition when they were asked to grab balloons and blow them up to find the twelve prizes officials were giving away to the winners.
The sport is now hoping that the return of the the youth track leagues will coincide with the opening of the Lathbury facilities which were initially due to open in April.
Latest reports suggest that the track was being cleared and could soon be ready for use. The main turf for football already laid out.
Athletics will be looking at building a track and field programme, although how this will eventually work with football also expected to be played at Lathbury is still be seen with few details on the final use of facilities not yet known publicly.