A SPORTS coach has warned that Moray will not be able to continue developing talented young athletes with sports facilities he has deemed to be unsafe.
Moray Road Runners chairman Gareth Jenkins said at a special meeting this week how his club’s young members risk injury by training on Moray’s only athletics track at Morriston playing fields, Elgin.
One promising schoolgirl athlete told the meeting how she had already been injured while training on the deteriorating cinder track, which her club has now ruled as unfit for use.
More than 100 people attended Monday night’s Moray Sports Summit, which was organised by Moray MSP Richard Lochhead following renewed calls for a regional sports centre to be built in the area.
Members of the Moray Road Runners club, which has produced a number of athletes who have gone on to represent Scotland, raised their concerns for the future of athletics in Moray when facilities are of a poor standard.
Charlotte Bevan (12) spoke of “terrible” training facilities for her and her club colleagues, and revealed how she was injured during training because of the dangers posed by Morriston’s inadequacies.
Mr Jenkins, who coaches young runners aged eight upwards on a twice weekly basis, said: “It’s getting to the stage now where we just can’t carry on delivering athletics at the current facilities because it is unsafe.
“It’s only a matter of time before something serious happens.”
See Northern Scot for full feature and pictures from the Moray sports summit.
