WHAT WE DO

The National Centre for Race Walking was established in 2009. It was initially a partnership between Leeds Beckett University and British Athletics funded for four years to April 2013. In August 2011, the partnership evolved bringing in England Athletics as principal partner until March 2013. Since September 2014, the Programme has been a charitable foundation.

We provide a structured training and competition programme for athletes of all levels. There has been race walking training activity based in Leeds since October 2006. We align our Programme with the development pathway in performance athletics in the UK. The principal benefit of the National Centre for Race Walking is athletes training together in a dual career environment.

Aims & Objectives

We are passionate about track & field athletics, and the race walk event group. We measure success by athletes competing in (Olympic distance) teams, i.e. navigating the junior-senior transition. We aim to support athletes to fulfil their potential.

Our Goals:

To enable a performance pathway from junior to senior level for race walk athletes.

To be the leading race walk environment in the UK.

To provide talent transfer opportunities for athletes wishing to explore their race walk potential.

To provide participation opportunities for student athletes wishing to try race walking.

To achieve these objectives, we run two training squads, preparing athletes to compete in events ranging from junior age-group events to the Olympic Games.

Professional Standards

As a duty of care, we support athletes with appropriately qualified and licenced coaches, i.e. holding a current British Athletics coaching qualification. Similarly, our practitioner team, relevant to their profession or area of expertise. We adhere to Clean Sport principles across our programme.