Run England Group of the Year national award announced

Seven of our regional award winners received the National title in their category at our Hall of Fame and Volunteer Awards gala evening.  Our congratulations to those deserved people who haven given so much time and energy to the sport.  The Run England Group / Leader of the Year award was made, and the Participation Project winner Active Devon was also involved with running groups.

Run England Group / Leader of the Year: Fen Edge Runners, Tom Johnston & Luke Renouf

Fen Edge Runners’ Tom Johnston & Luke Renouf operate ‘pop up' beginners running groups in a number of different villages.  These are community based, progressive programmes that feed into the main Fen Edge Runners club sessions.  There are development of sessions aligned with local schools and workplace groups.  These are all inclusive, no-pressure groups aimed at getting new people trying athletics.  They were quite tongue-tied, "We can't believe it." Clare, a coach with the Impington Beginners' Running Group said it all for them on social media, "The Fen Edge Runners Crew has WON running group/leader of the year for the pop up beginner groups we do. Very well deserved for Luke and Tom, and all those helpers that rock up week in, week out, too."

Participation Project of the Year: Active Devon
Active Devon has worked with many different organisations and networks over the last year and has engaged more than 650 new beginner runners up to April 2015.  Active Devon has great relationships with a variety of organisations including College Sport Makers, Running Networks, Schools, Athletics and Running Clubs which help increase participation in many areas of Devon and particularly engaging harder to reach groups.

Matt Evans and Tony Gale collected the award on behalf of Active Devon.  Matt said, "We're absolutely delighted to win the award - a really strong reflection on the work of colleagues like Tony at InStep Network and all our volunteers around Devon."  Tony added, "How good it is to recognise what Run England and the Couch to 5k programme has done to get non-sporting people into sport."