Looby wrote:
In addition, here is Sport England's latest participation figures for some sports:
Swimming, athletics, cycling, and football are amongst the most popular sports in 2014/15:
The number of people taking part in athletics weekly has risen from 1.4 million in 2005-06 to over 2.3 million today.
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Sport England's figure are a joke. SE love to include Parkrun in their figures to justify their supposed success. The reality is that athletics is a declining sport in the UK. Bicourt nails the position right here:
Tim is right is his contention about the competitive element of Park Runs (but only for a small minority maybe 5-10%, the rest are just content to go around the course jogging at a comfortable pace. Some with their dog or even pushing their young child in a buggy, as I think someone else pointed out elsewhere) One of my sons and some others I coach have all competitively done Park Run. One has given the field 2mins start and still finished 2nd!
Park Runs are quite obviously and without challenge a good thing for the general public for all the reasons we know………BUT, it has next to nothing to do with the sport of athletics anymore than leisure cyclists or leisure swimmers have anything to do with improving cycling and swimming as competitive sports and contributes not one iota to improving standards within the competitive sport as regarded by the public and the media.
Chris Jones’s statement is a wholly incongruous use of the word athletics……………
“In the ten years that parkrun has been going it has made a huge difference to athletics in Englandâ€!……. No it hasn’t. It’s made a huge difference to the number of people going out, running, jogging or walking (as many do) around a park or common for fun and presumably fitness., but that’s all. Not one of them could or would call themselves an athlete, (who was not one already). If each “participant†was asked, “what sport do you do†I venture that none would say athletics (Tim and a handful of others, excepted) They would say they go running. Or I run. How many would claim to be an athlete or doing athletics?
The absurdity of this convenient con by Sport England to claim increases in participation in the sport, is in the use of the word “athleticsâ€. It’s a cover all but ignores completely the athletics track and field clubs, counties, areas and nationally organised official competition structure together with their voluntary coaches and officials which as we all know (you too Tim) is in serious decline in coaches, officials, in-depth standards and the junior (over 16’s) and senior age groups.
http://eightlane.org/forum/topic/credit-where-credit-is-due-england-athletics-loves-parkrun-2/