With tomorrow heralding the start of an unprecedented summer of championship athletics it feels timely to reflect upon the first half of the year for UK Athletics. There is an incredibly busy summer ahead of us and rightly the focus is on our athletes and coaches as the culmination of their hard work comes to the fore.

Whether it is the World Athletics Championships, Commonwealth Games, the European Athletics Championships, or the World Athletics U20 Championships, everyone at UK Athletics wishes those competing and their support teams the very best of luck.  It is a great achievement, and a great honour, to be selected for these championships.

It never fails to amaze me the speed at which the weeks go by once the outdoor season starts. This season is no exception, with our GB & NI team travelling out to the holding camp for the World Championships at the start of this month. It is testimony to the work of performance support staff from UK Athletics and our home nation athletics federations that all of the teams will be in top condition to perform at these tightly scheduled championships.

We are frustrated of course on behalf of our para athletes that they do not have a major championships this year. We have continued to work closely to support athletes and coaches and create event opportunities but nothing quite compares to competing at the highest level and we need to ensure as a priority that a clearer events programme for para athletes is a priority for 2023.

Of course, in recent weeks there have been announcements concerning the structure and changes being made to the performance area of UK Athletics in the coming months. We are confident the strategy we have in place, agreed by UK Sport and led by the new Technical Director will help us to prioritise more effective support to athletes and coaches on the World Class  Programme, helping us towards the Paris 2024 and LA 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. We are grateful to UK Sport for their significant support towards the World Class  Programme, and I look forward to seeing the new developments take place in the coming months.

There have been a number of changes at board level since the start of the year.  Marilyn Okoro and Wendy Sly joined the board in January, both former international athletes and their appointments have helped increase the experience and knowledge of top-level athletics around the board table.  Jennifer Thomas was appointed as Senior Independent Director, and as part of that role now chairs the Nominations Committee and the Standards, Ethics and Rules Committee.  Unfortunately Stuart Cain stepped down because of his day job commitments, having made a significant contribution during his time as a board member, particularly on the commercial side of the organisation.  The senior executive team now attend all board meetings, which I believe has helped the effectiveness of the board.  It is important to me that the Board is a strategic body that makes appropriate check and challenge of the executive team, while recognising the expertise and talent we have in place and providing them with space and support to drive the sport forward.

The UKA Members continue to provide their valued opinion and high-level input on the vision and direction of UK Athletics, and I have enjoyed working collaboratively with them. The changes to the articles of association in January that were voted through at the EGM have enabled us to focus now moving forward positively as a sport.

One of our priorities has been to improve UKA’s wider relationships, and I am pleased to see that we are now working more positively with many of the key organisations with whom we have had long term connections, including our International Federations. Our reputation for bidding successfully and hosting great events has meant UK Athletics has played a key part in their delivery aims for many years. We are proud of our standing internationally but like all good collaborations we will only get out what we put in, and it has been a priority of ours to ensure we work well with these organisations.

Likewise, our UK-based offer of events relies heavily upon our ability to build and maintain great relationships with UK based host cities, race organisers and other event companies. Like all parts of athletics, we succeed if everyone works together for the benefit of the sport, and these last few months of re-engaging with these groups have shown us there are many bodies, companies and organisations who want to help the sport move forward by hosting major events, or partnering with us to bid for international events.

These relationships are a vital part of the overall commercial picture and like many sports organisations coming out of the pandemic, the current environment offers many challenges as we endeavour to recover from the last couple of years of disruption. However, with continued collaboration and the evident change in focus towards one of working positively together, the sport and all its stakeholders will always continue to prioritise athletes and coaches towards their individual performance aims.

A lot of the improvements seen in the last few months have been very much down to the efforts of the interim CEO and the executive team within UKA. As interim CEO since last October Mark Munro has done a fantastic job of not only ‘steadying the ship’ but ensuring we have driven forward in a number of areas, recruited the right people, refreshed our event series and focused on the key priorities for the sport. I would like to thank him for his commitment over the last nine months to bring continuity and helping to change the culture within UK Athletics, and to wish him well in his new role as Chief Operating Officer.

And that brings me on to our new CEO.  I would like to take this opportunity of welcoming Jack Buckner to UKA, and I am very much looking forward to working with him when he starts in his new role next week. We know that in Jack we have appointed an excellent CEO, grounded in the sport of athletics but with a wealth of experience of sports administration, mostly recently with British Triathlon and British Swimming.  We appreciate that there are challenges facing UKA, but I know that Jack recognises these challenges and is excited about the role and the opportunity to take the sport forward.  I am sure I speak for all of the sport in wishing him every success.

Finally, I have had a chance to meet so many working in our sport this summer and it is thanks to their efforts that we stand at the start of an exciting six weeks looking positively at the events ahead. As well as the partners and supporters I have already mentioned, we have the benefit of the world’s best athletics officials working within the UK, and it is because of them that our events run smoothly and provide athletes and coaches with that vital high quality pre-championship build up. Some of them will no doubt be in action this summer and we are proud of the part they play in domestic and international competition.

Enjoy this summer of sport, and for all those involved the best of luck to you.