Key topic running athletics sports

Running athletics sports

Most schools should have standard operating procedures (or at least some guidelines) in place for running the school athletics sports. Talk to your HoD of PE and work with the PE department; their experience and institutional knowledge play a big part in pulling these events together. Also contact your local regional athletics associations as they may be able to help you in some areas of running the event.
Some key things to remember are:
Athletes with disabilities
Athletics is an easy event to promote the inclusion of all students including athletes with disabilities (AWD). It is preferable to include these athletes in the current programme rather than create separate events. For field events, AWD students can compete in their own age groups e.g. with the other junior boys. Note that the implement weights for the javelin, discus and shotput will be different for the AWD students and they need to be available at these rounds for them. Don’t forget to let your staff know about these too.
For track events, depending on the degree of disability, students could either run with their age group, or you may wish to hold separate events for these athletes, depending on the numbers. Again, athletes should be included as much as possible and you should not have single students running a race by themselves.
Some of the larger regions have separate AWD athletics meetings as a qualifier for regionals. If your region doesn’t, they should be included in the school athletics and qualify to attend just like your other school athletes. This is a great opportunity for them to represent their school and there are many chances to progress onto Island and National school events.
Timing

• If you are holding your athletics sports at a venue away from your school, you’ll probably have to book up to 12 months ahead in order to get a suitable date.
• Your athletics sports day should be timed to fit in with your zone and regional athletics championships, so you can use your own athletics day as a selection and/or qualifying event for regional athletics. Ensure you plan your event with enough time to prepare permission slips, receive these back and complete the entry forms for your zone/regional events.
• Ensure that you have a back-up day booked in case of bad weather.

Resources
People

• If possible have at least two experienced staff on all field events.
• Use the same staff on the same events each year, so that they become experienced.
• Ensure staff are trained in the basic rules of their event, and basic safety management (this information should be provided every year). If staff require upskilling, contact your local athletics club or RST/RSD.
• Choose appropriately trained people for the key roles of head judge, track judge, head timekeeper, results coordinator, announcer and the meeting coordinator.
• Use a prominent member of the PE staff or senior staff for the key role of track marshal.
• Use senior students or sports committee students to assist as marshals, results recorders, runners, judges and timekeepers.
• Establish a key group of students as recorders – start them at Year 9 level with senior student mentors and use them every year so they become experienced.
• Appoint an equipment marshal to manage a list of equipment required, and ensure that all equipment is appropriately marked, measured and checked for safety.

Equipment

• Have a quality sound system, an experienced announcer, walkie-talkies for at least the key people mentioned above; test and check your sound and communication systems.
• Set up a centralised results centre – ideally a tent (or building) inside the track, near to the finish of the 100 metres.
• You’ll need sufficient stop watches depending on how many finishers in each event are being timed, and three timekeepers (e.g. if you are timing 1st-4th you’ll need 12 watches). You could also use the app called ‘SprintTimer’ to record placings and times on an iPad or iPhone.
• Make sure you have adequate display boards for listing finalists, sufficient pens, paper and clipboards for all officials, standard forms for recording results, colour-coded place-cards for finishers, etc.
• Use high-vis vests to increase visibility and safety on the field and to be able to distinguish people in official roles.

Safety management

• Normal EOTC procedures apply. Ensure you follow your school’s EOTC policies.
• Have qualified first aid personnel on-site, sufficient first aid supplies and ice.
• If using an outside venue, inspect the venue beforehand, identify safety issues and hazards and work with the venue coordinator to minimise potential risks.
• Check the long jump pit is safe, and rope off the run-up.
• Ensure all javelin and discus throwing areas are clear of people at all times, and these areas are well clear of other events.
• Rope off all field events.
• Rope off the track and the 100m straight; do not allow any students inside the track area.
• Ensure that officials have adequate vision for effective judging and safety management.
• If running the event on-site, work with the grounds staff to ensure:
• the field is a safe environment
• the track, the circles and Vs for field events are marked
• there is sufficient sand for the long-jump pit and the long jump boards are painted.
• Have a briefing with all the officials prior to the event, outlining rules and expectations in regard to safety management.
• In case of a whole school event, it may be necessary to have staff patrolling the grounds to make sure all students stay on site and have unannounced roll checks during the day. (The roll check time should be built into the timing of the day.)

Entries

• Decide whether entries are going to be on a compulsory or voluntary basis.
• Use age groupings that match the groupings in your regional athletics to make selection easier e.g. U14, U16, U19.
• Advertise the event through form classes and/or house group meetings and take entries up to 3 weeks before the event.
• Use a simple process like a standard entry form to make entry easy for students.
• Hold a briefing in assembly and hand out programmes the week prior to the event.
• If you decide to take entries on the day consider whether you will have a poor turnout in this case. Students may be more likely to turn up if they have made a prior commitment.

Organisation

• Depending on entry numbers, double up girls and boys in field events (i.e. run them concurrently) to reduce resources required.
• Consider whether you need to allow two separate areas for field events (e.g. 2 long jump pits may be required).
• Issue a map and programme to all competitors with a comprehensive timetable.
• If necessary hold heats and elimination rounds in events with high participation numbers before the event (e.g. hold 100m heats during lunchtime in the days leading up to event, so that on the day you only need to have the semis and finals).
• To help speed up the measuring of field events on the day, you could have measuring distances marked out for the age group. For example, in the Junior Boys shotput you may decide not to measure any throws less than 8 metres.
• Ensure your programme for the day is achievable. Allow sufficient time between distance events like the 3000m and 1500m; it may be better to run distance events with all age groups participating together. Use colour-coded place cards to separate the finishers.
• Make sure that the timing of events like sprints and long/high jump don’t clash as students will commonly participate in sprints and jumping events. You could use your regional athletics event programme as a guide.
• Make suitable catering arrangements for morning/afternoon teas for officials.

Results and follow-up

• If possible use a computerised result system (with manual back-up) that allows you to give up-to-date reports on championship and house points to the announcer.
• Use runners to run results from each event to the results coordinator and announcer, and have duplicate result slips. (A portable printer/scanner/copier is useful in this case.)
• Prepare clipboards with sufficient spare results slips for all event officials.
• Hold a de-brief meeting after the event, with all appropriate officials and set in place recommendations for the next event.
• To speed up the entry process for your regional event, you may wish to issue permission slips for the regional event to everyone who qualifies, such as the top three place getters, at the end of the school event.
• Check with your RSD about any changes from last year in regards to implement weights, hurdle heights, qualifying distances, and so on.

See the following examples available at sportnz.org.nz/rrss:

• an inclusive event checklist
• an example athletics programme
• result recording sheets
• field event instructions.

See College Sport Wellington’s website for guidelines on officiating and technical information about athletics events.