City of Lisburn & North Belfast Harriers Receive "Clubmark" Accreditation

Athletics Northern Ireland has launched the Clubmark Accreditation Scheme and are pleased that two local clubs have recently gone through the accreditation process and have been successful; City of Lisburn AC and North Belfast Harriers.

"Club Mark" is the national junior sports club accreditation programme which aims to identify, develop, accredit and recognise high quality sports junior clubs and the contribution that they make to the development of sport in Northern Ireland.

The three main areas which are categorised and focused on are: Effective Management, Quality Coaching and Competition and Safety in Sport.

Vicki Kennedy, Athletics NI Coaching & Club Development Manager said: "I would like to congratulate City of Lisburn AC and North Belfast Harriers on being the first two athletics clubs in NI to receive this accreditation"

This scheme has been endorsed by Sport Northern Ireland. Special thanks go to Simon Toole (Performance Consultant) and Noleen Lennon (Coaching and Clubs) from Sport NI for their assistance in endorsing Athletics Northern Ireland's scheme.

I would also like to thank the councils who are assisting clubs within their areas eg: Belfast City Council Council for assistance with North Belfast Harriers and Newtownabbey Council with assistance with Newtownabbey Racers, who are in the process".

Athletics Northern Ireland are now in a position to roll this scheme out to Athletic Clubs who are interested and have junior sections within their clubs. McCain Athletic Club Network clubs are encouraged to participate.

Speaking about the award of this prestigious accreditation, NBH Chairman Matt Shields commented: "We owe a big thanks to junior coach Claire McCorry who prepared the Club Mark application through Belfast City Council.

The Council and Armetus, the community schools charity, have been key partners in the creation of our current ongoing development plans and this is one further step in that plan."

There is no doubt that North Belfast Harriers is a club which is going from strength to strength at the moment. The recent "running boom" has led to an increase in North Belfast Harriers club membership over the last few months. Runners, of all age groups and abilities, from first time 10 year olds to established local runners, are showing up at weekly training sessions and looking to get involved.

Matt is also encouraged by the attitude of everyone in the club to get involved but also feels the recent successes are due, in no small part, to the fact that the harriers have their own clubhouse (with changing, showering, meeting facilities), are actively involved in community work (they organise Park Run) and have state of the art track facilities at their disposal in North Belfast.

City of Lisburn AC is a successful club which draws membership from Lisburn and the surrounding areas of Belfast, Dromore, Moira and Banbridge and base their training at the Mary Peters Track. They cater for all ages starting at 8 years old and includes Northern Ireland's very successful Ciara Mageean as a member.

Eric Frizzell, middle distance coach said, "The accreditation will ensure that City of Lisburn AC will provide a first class facility for young athletes from a wide catchment area and will support local schools in their athletics development plans"

If your club is interested please register with Sport Northern Ireland first at www.sportni.net/clubmarkni and click on Get Accredited, Athletics NI will then be made aware of your intention to proceed and a folder will be available for your club.

If your club decides to participate in the accreditation process, remember assistance is available from Vicki Kennedy and Heather Ardis.

Visit www.niathletics.org for more information.