English Schools

The English schools competitions build to the English Schools’ championships in mid July each year which is the largest schools’ track and field event on the entire planet. Athletes are entered for their school team to compete in an area championship (e.g. Slough, Reading Wokingham, etc.) Each area then selects a team to compete against other areas in the County Championship. A team of athletes who meet the qualifying standard is then selected to represent the County at the English Schools’ finals. As well as the prestigious track and field event there is also an English Schools’ calendar for combined events and cross country.

County Champs

The County Championships are open for residents of the county to enter and compete. Athletes born within the county may also compete. After the Championships a team is selected to represent the county in one or more Inter Counties matches.

club meetings

Click here to see club level competitions, often on Friday afternoon and evenings.

Opens

Open competitions allow athletes to pay to enter a competition under UKA rules. They are ideal for establishing accurate performance standard for new and returning athletes, or for trying for a qualifying standard for other events. There are two main types of open:

  1. Age Group: Where competitors compete against athletes with and age group category

  2. Graded: Where athletes of all ages compete against athletes with a similar personal best (PB)

Non-Scoring

One of the difficult things for new and returning athletes to do is to get officially recorded performance to enable selection for teams. Some events allow non-scoring athletes to participate to achieve this. In some cases non-scoring  athletes must be declared beforehand, in others (such as the AVL) they can simply turn up on the day.

Sportshall is a frantic and fun way for U11, U13 and U15 athletes to compete indoors over the winter months. Athletics does not get more grassroots than Sportshall. Several international athletes including Morgan Lake started athletics in Sportshall. Even a few schools participate and it is probably the only athletics event in the country in which an athlete can start in a primary school hall and end up in a national final. Berkshire have been recent national champions in 2017 and 2019.

SPORTSHALL