East Lothian Council Region has a huge amount of Athletics opportunities available and accessible to all. Meadowmill Sports Centre houses the first class Athletics Arena with track and field facilities.  The Arena is used by the 4 local athletics clubs: Musselburgh and District (MaDAC), Haddington, Dunbar and Team East Lothian.

Opportunities in the area start from the Early Level with the Start Well Programme which is being rolled out across Nurseries and encourages children from the age of 2 years to be active and enjoy physical activities to help develop not just their movement skills but also their cognitive learning.

Following this, we offer Run, Jump Throw sessions which are open to children from P1 – P3 and P4 – P7. These groups run after school in a variety of locations.  All details are available from Active Schools Co-ordinators and the link for the next block can be found here in December for the 3rd term.

From the age of 8 years, MaDAC (MDaC),  Haddington (Haddington ) and Dunbar Athletics Clubs (Dunbar), offer coaching where they have the opportunity to learn and develop their skills across all the athletics disciplines. Talented athletes may then be invited to join Team East Lothian (TEL) from the age of 12+.  At TEL, athletes then have access to expert coaching across all track and field events and Athlete Development and Physical Literacy.  This extends the pathway for athletes from club to national events and beyond. There are 4 squads to the TEL pathway which are Potential, Development 1, Development 2 and Academy.  The Academy athletes are invited to attend PAiS which is a programme for young people from S3 – S6 who have been identified as having exceptional talent and this gives them the opportunity to extended training with our top coach, Jamie Bowie.

A new addition to the clubs is our Race Running Bike club which is open to athletes with disabilities. These bikes offer the unique opportunity to get out onto the track and improve fitness, physical ability and is a great weekly social event too. Although the club has only just started it is already growing in numbers.

Our Development Officer works closely with schools in the region to increase participation in physical activities and to extend Teacher’s Athletics Toolkits. Many of the schools in the region are involved in the ‘Mile a Day’ run too which is really enjoyed by the children.  

And, not to forget the adults, Jog Scotland have clubs across the region too – Musselburgh, Meadowmill and Haddington. This is a great opportunity for recreational runners or those who want to start running.  All ages and abilities are welcome: Walk – Jog – Run.  The only requirement is that you enjoy a good blether! Couch to 5k training blocks are available. You can also enjoy 2 local park runs : Meadowmill Park Run and Lochend Woods Park Run where you can walk, crawl or run your way around a 5k route - best of all, it;s FREE and open every Saturday morning setting off at 9.30am.

There’s something for everyone in East Lothian – for more information, please feel free to get in touch. You can also join us on Twitter at @lynda_gilroy or on facebook at ELAD