Coaches workshop PowerPoint:

After a number of delays and setbacks (including long-distance travel disruptions, malfunctioning smartphones and Covid-19 infections), Andrea and Monica have announced that the PowerPoint presentation/lesson plan for the Coach workshop has been uploaded to the Project Team Area.

This third and final workshop for our project includes a video featuring I Run Clean spokesperson Jenny Meadows, who shows the silver medal she was given at the 2011 European Athletics Indoor
Championships and then the gold medal for the same race, which she received two years later when the athlete who finished ahead of her was found to have been doped.

Ambassadors and coordinators responsible for the translation of the PowerPoint should check the Project Team Area for the new presentation, which is very similar to the presentations for athletes and parents.

The project management team recognises that most coaches will have little time to spare in the middle of the summer so we anticipate that most of the five test workshops for coaches in each of the project countries will be delivered after the grassroots athletics season eases off in September.

Attention Ambassadors! Feel free to contact the project management team if you have any questions regarding translation or the contents of the ppt.

Munich promotion activities

I Run Clean will have a strong presence at the European Athletics Championships in Munich after the Franco-German Youth Office and the French National Olympic Committee (CNOSF) confirmed a €14,100 grant to finance the operation of a pavilion in the event’s Market Square, close to where the winners medals will be awarded.

This grant, which is technically made to the French athletic federation on behalf of the I Run Clean project, is the second the project has secured on top of the original Erasmus+ project funding, the first being US $50,000 given to finance additional e-learning modules as reported in newsletter n°3.

Planning for Munich started after the grant approvalon 22 June. It is anticipated that 13 to 15 French and German ambassadors plus a small number from Spain will have their travel and accommodation costs for the week of the championships covered so they can promote I Run Clean and the values of clean sport (sorry, the grant programme only allows three countries to be involved).

The ambassadors’ main task will be to speak with championship spectators and encourage them to register for and complete the I Run Clean e-learning course. They will work according to a schedule that allows them to attend some of the competition in the stadium.

The current concept also includes extensive communication of the ambassadors’ activities through social media, to be managed by students from La Sorbonne Nouvelle, and it is hoped that at least
some of the ambassadors will be able to visit the Young Leaders Forum, interact with the participants and encourage them to become involved in future I Run Clean projects.

Finalisation meeting date

It has been decided that finalisation meeting mentioned in newsletter n°2 will take place immediately after the test workshop period and it has been scheduled for Paris on the weekend of 5-6 November 2022.

Planning of the programme and contents will start inthe coming weeks and further information will be communicated as it becomes available.

In the meantime, ambassadors should save the date ontheir calendars.

Another e-learning milestone

As of 15 June a total of 30,000 I Run Clean diplomas have been awarded. This milestone for the e-learning platform highlights the ever-accelerating rate at which athletes and other members of the athletics community are engaging with I Run Clean in order to learn more about clean sport and the fight against doping.

It took 31 months from the launch of the platform in 2017 until the 10,000th diploma was awarded in January 2020 and then 17 months for the next 10,000. I Run Clean programme administrators were pretty happy with improved rate . . . until they were pleasantly surprised to learn that the third 10,000 had been awarded in slightly more than 12 months!

What is not a surprise is that the rate of the number of diplomas awarded mirrors the rate of users registering on the platform. As reported in newsletter n°3, the first five months of 2022 saw record growth in the number new users and preliminary figures show that June is on course to continue the trend.

This is likely to further intensify as a result of the exposure generated by ambassador-delivered I Run Clean workshops, both direct and on social media, in the six partner countries of our Erasmus+ project.

Attention Ambassadors! Please, please, please be sure to post about all your workshops and other I Run Clean-related activities on social media using #irunclean and a link to www.irunclean.org. Also, don’t forget to like/comment/share about your colleagues posts. This is very important for promoting our project and the e-learning platform to the wider athletics community.

Impact assessment research

As we approach the one-third point of the 6-month test workshop delivery period, the project management team is happy to report some good news: most of the required survey data from the participants in the initial wave of I Run Clean workshops has been received. Thank you to everyone involved for your efforts. 

Please note that because of delays that are now anticipated in the production of the new e-learning modules, the impact assessment research component of our Erasmus+ project is being slightly re-designed and it is anticipated that even more emphasis will be placed on the data from the workshop participants.

This makes it essential that a) we stage all the foreseen workshops (5 for athletes, 5 for coaches and 5 for parents) in each of the six partner countries and b) all participants complete both the pre-workshop and post-workshop surveys.

Ambassadors are reminded to ensure that any participants who have not completed the pre-Workshop survey prior to arrival at the workshop venue do so using the QR code on Slide 2 of the ppt for each of the workshops and that all participants complete the post-workshop survey using
the QR code on the very last slide of the ppt.

WADA grant for I Run Clean spin-off 

Working on behalf of his university, project partner Sapienza University of Rome, Andrea has successfully coordinated a project application that secured a US $74,400 research grant from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

The project will look at the possibility of using a so called serious game to teach the values important for clean sport. It will build on the findings and experience of the I Run Clean project.

Congratulations to Andrea and everyone involved inthe application.

As we get more information we will share it and, for sure, Andrea will make a short presentation during the finalisation meeting in November.