Quality assurance on the cards for major Clare events

A MAJOR Clare sports organisation is considering implementing a quality assurance policy for mass participation events like marathons and cycle races in the county.
As well as increasing the number of people taking part and improving the quality of events, it is hoped such a scheme could also be hugely beneficial to the local economy.
The Clare Sports Partnership will discuss the possibility of implementing this type of policy later this week and according to the organisation’s co-ordinator, John Sweeney guidelines could be in place as early as the summer.
“Mass participation sporting events are hugely important to the economy of the county because if they are on a Saturday, people will stay on the Friday evening and perhaps on the Saturday night too. This is obviously beneficial to B&Bs, to hotels, to restaurants, to pubs,” explained John.
“If an international event is held here that attracts people from different countries to the county. Certain events like the Burren Peaks Walking Festival or the Cliffs of Moher Marathon in September are connected with such well-known places and brands that visitors from outside the country might plan their holidays around them,” he continued.
Last year in Clare, more than 1,900 people took part in the Burren Challenge, 850 in the Tour De Burren, and more than 500 in the Burren Walking Festival while the Brian Boru Triathlon in Killaloe and the Hell of the West Triathlon both attracted hundreds of participants. The Clare 10k also had a significant entry.
“Once you get people moving in their own county or coming in from elsewhere, you are stimulating the economy because it might be just be a case of someone buying lunch in a filling station or a café or staying in a hotel or eating out that night,” John added. 
This year, the partnership estimates that the number of entrants in the Tour De Burren will double and the Cliffs of Moher Marathon is likely to attract more than 1,000 people.
Under the proposed quality assurance policy, the partnership will look at areas such as pricing structures for participants, whether or not organisers have sufficient insurance, whether or not there will be training opportunities in advance, whether or not first-aid requirements can be met and whether or not those running the event are targeting the right audience.
“We can’t stop events happening but we are trying to ensure that events that are happening come under a quality assurance policy to ensure they are run to the highest standard and that participants will come back and take part in other events in the country, knowing that they are of a high quality,” John outlined. 
“Under the proposed policy, there will be consultation between Clare Sports Partnership, event organisers and other partners like Clare County Council and Shannon Development as well as sporting organisations to make sure there is no clash between events and to ensure all events get maximum participation,” he added.
Clare is currently marketed under the slogan Live the Life. This is something the partnership hopes to build on by encouraging people to come to the county to take part in sports events.
“We do want people to come here for sporting events but we also want to see people living here taking part too. We would like to get to a point where people from Clare are participating in events countywide and are getting to know the events that are happening here in their own county,” John concluded.