Liz Francis, Athletics Development Manager for SportCentral

Liz is a highly motivated individual with a passion for Athletics Liz has worked with Local Authorities, Clubs and The Forth Valley Athletics Partnership to develop a 3 year strategy for Athletics, which is underpinned by the Developing Performance Strategy of scottishathletics. Since Liz has been in post she has been working with all partners in the region to develop athletes, coaches and officials as part of the long-term athlete development model.

Together with local Sports Development Officers and Clubs, links at grass roots level are becoming formalised and the athlete pathway is being more widely communicated. Liz has worked with scottishathletics to implement Regional Squads to bridge the gap between regional and national squad activity. Partners endeavour to raise the profile of the sport by giving youngsters a positive experience of Athletics. One example of this is local club athletes and school children were invited to a questions and answers session with role models such as Young Talented Athlete Gemma Nicol.

Liz aims to work towards the targets of the scottishathletics Developing Performance Strategy and have both a positive impact on Athletics in the Central region and develop the sport at local and regional level. The following are the key priority areas for development to meet the strategy objectives:

Clubs, coaching, athlete pathway, facilities and workforce.

The headline objectives for Athletics are to support and develop clubs, provide coach development opportunities, sustain, support and develop volunteers and develop new and improve access to existing sports facilities at appropriate times for a reasonable cost.