This is an introduction to competing in official Track & Field meets for your club, in a relaxed but organised atmosphere.
Age Groups
Events are held for boys and girls in the following age groups
- U13 (school years 6 and 7)
- U15 (school years 8 and 9)
- U17 (schools years 10 and 11)
Events
The events include all standard distances 100m-1500m, Sprint Hurdles, all throws and jumps, and 4x100m relays at the end of each meet. Meets are governed by UKA rules, so some events are not available to certain age groups, for example U13s can not compete in Pole Vault, and only U17s can compete in 800m and 1500m on the same day. You will be advised if you request events not applicable to your junior.
Entry
There is no cost to compete at these meets this is included in your Junior Membership, and each meet that you take part in contributes towards your Junior Commitment of competing sufficiently for the club.
Usually around three weeks before each meet a post will go onto the clubs EYAL WhatsApp group, asking for athletes/parents to provide the events that the athletes would like to compete in at this upcoming meet.
Whilst in an ideal world every athlete would be able to run in their preferred events, this just isn’t possible due to limits on some events, and the idea is that we qualify for one of the season finals. Every attempt will be made by the team selectors to allow athletes to compete in the next event if they missed out on the previous meet wherever possible, as we all want the athletes to enjoy the meets and have fun, as well as trying something new, with often less pressure than they feel in their main events.
Where and When
There are 4 league fixtures between April and August with a possible final (top 12 as mentioned above) in September.
EYAL Timetable (subject to minor changes)
- 14th April – Ware Hertfordshire SG12 0UQ
- 5th May – Braintree CM7 1FF
- 2nd June – Cambridge CB3 0EQ
- 21st July – Chelmsford CM1 2EH
- 8th Sept – 7th-12th FINAL Venue TBC
- 8th Sept – 1st-6th FINAL Venue TBC
Each fixture is on a Sunday and starts around 11:40am and finishes around 17:15pm.
For the more distant fixtures the club often organises a coach and charges a small fee to help cover costs.
Format
The league usually consists of 4 round-robin meets at often local venues, with the top 12 clubs at the end of the 4 meets qualifying for two separate final meets, one for 7th-12th, and the other final for 1st-6th positions to battle to be the Champions.
Currently there are 24 clubs in this league, with each fixture against 5 other clubs. Ideally we would have 2 athletes per event, A string and B string, and then others that may wish to compete as non-scorers on this occasion. Not having an A or B scorer in any event means that we score 0 points for that lack of athlete, and other clubs will be able to more easily score extra points with less competitors.
Each (A&B) athlete scores points in their event towards the team’s overall score (an athlete can be in different strings in different events or a non-scorer for each/any event).
An athlete can compete in a maximum of 3 individual events, plus the relay, and must be wearing an official club top. Vests are usually advised as it is very easy to overheat, and these are lighter.