A safe return to group jogging – advice for jog leaders

Read the full announcement on the UK Athletics website

Many of our groups have now returned to group activity, with our jog leaders working hard to make sure sessions comply with Covid guidelines, as well as ensuring they are safe in all the usual ways.

UK Athletics Health and Safety Lead, Ashley Charlwood, has today issued some useful reminders to make sure the return to group sports goes smoothly and safely: “When restarting an activity, it is important to check what has changed since the pandemic began. This could cover whether another sport group is using the park at the time that your running group meets in that space, or whether a venue is managing activities differently. Has there been a change of membership within the group, or is the fitness and ability of a participant is still the same as it was in March 2020?”

Particularly with the recent spotlight on cardiac health after the collapse of footballer Christian Eriksen at the Euros, he suggests three simple things you can do to ensure the wellbeing of your joggers in case of an emergency:

• Check or re-check physical activity readiness questionnaires (PARQ) with all participants – jog leaders can download the PARQ form from the jog leader toolkit on the website. Find out if there have been any important changes to relevant health conditions, emergency contact details etc.
• Check the status of your local AED (Automated External Defibrilator) – www.heartsafe.org.uk/aed-locations
• Think about whether the session is, or can be, covered by someone who is confident in BLS (basic life support) – more information is available at www.resus.org.uk. Even those who haven’t undergone formal training can find useful information in this short animation, which could help them save someone’s life if the worst should happen:

We hope that these precautions will never be needed, but when they are, this knowledge can make an enormous difference.

Don’t forget to complete risk assessments for your sessions, and if something does happen at your group which leads to a jogger requiring medical assistance, after the event please download and complete the accident reporting form and return it to jo.stevens@scottishathletics.org.uk. The risk assessment template and the accident reporting form can both be downloaded from the jog leader toolkit.

Advice on keeping your group Covid-safe, including a guide to additional risk assessment considerations, can be found on the Covid page of our website.

You can also review our general Running Safety advice.

We’re grateful to our jog leaders for their ongoing commitment to keeping their joggers safe.