RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Colin Thompson said their athletics club was struggling to cope with renewed interest in the sport [Colin Thompson]
Children across the country may have been inspired, by recent European Athletics Championships and the feats of athletes like British sprinters Amy Hunt and Matthew Hudson-Smith, to take up the sport.
But is the sport ready for them? One club not far from the venue which hosted the championships said they were struggling to cope with the interest.
A summer camp run by the Wolverhampton and Bilston Athletics Club was well-attended which their chairman, Colin Thompson, said "was inspired by" the Birmingham event.
"That helps us, but what happens is people come down, having been inspired by the sport, only to find that we can't accommodate them through lack of coaches," he added.
The club has lost four coaches over the last year and struggles to maintain their track, due to local plant life.
"[We've] got roots growing underneath the velodrome, which is the cycle velodrome around the track, and the [athletics] track", Thompson said.
"It's not just a simple case of covering the track. It's getting rid of the roots to enable us to resurface the track."
"The interest may be there, but you've got to have the infrastructure to deal with it and a lot of clubs haven't got that infrastructure."
Wolverhampton's Matt Hudson-Smith was among the stars of the recent championships [Getty Images]
But he did not criticise the local council, which he said, like many across the country, did not have the money to invest in grassroots sports like athletics.
"The facilities are so expensive to maintain that I think like all councils up and down the country they've got so much money to spend," Thompson added.
"They've got to allocate it to the most appropriate places."
The City of Wolverhampton Council and England Athletics were asked for a response.
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Related internet links
Wolverhampton and Bilston Athletics Club
City of Wolverhampton Council
England Athletics
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