The new county athletics development squads got off to a rousing start on Monday 3rd November at the Lee Valley Indoor Athletic Centre.  With over 100 athletes from the clubs around the county taking part in Jumps, Throws and Hurdles groups, the centre was a hive of activity.  Many of the clubs athletes and coaches took part in this new venture and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. See Photo Gallery for squad pictures.

Based on the athletes performances in 2008 recorded in the national rankings, these squads are aimed at those athletes who have shown the ability or potential to perform at county level or beyond predominantly in the U15 and U17 age groups.  The aim being to act as a stepping stone to aid the development of athletes between the clubs and the England Athletics eastern region squads.

Additionally these sessions bring together coaches from all the clubs so that the coaches can share good practice and learn from each other and as a consequence, develop their skills.  As a result the Hertfordshire Development Group hope that the standards of both performance and coaching will rise making Hertfordshire an even stronger county for athletics and seeing individual athletes and coaches progress to realise their full potential.

The evening was a great opportunity for Herts Phoenix members to meet new people, discuss new ideas, try new approaches and spend an evening training in one of the premier athletics facilities in the UK – where athletes such as world and Olympic champion Christine Ohurogu, Natasha Danvers, Nicola Sanders and Simeon Williamson are based.

There will be three more squad sessions during the winter and the development group and coaching teams hope to build on a very strong and well organised start for which many thanks are owed to Norma Harris of Stevenage and North Herts AC, Malcolm Wallace from Watford AC the chair of the group and the Hertfordshire Development Group as a whole.