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The National Championships

Time and Place

The National Prep Schools Athletics Championships are held on the first Sunday or subsequent Monday of July, from 11.15 until about 6.30. The Alexander Stadium is about two miles southwards down the A34 from Junction 7 of the M6 on the left hand side. Although the stadium is well advertised, its entrance is not. Minibuses should use a little lane called Stadium Way, signposted Entrance A, a little before the main turn-off. The Stadium is an internationally recognised athletics venue, with an eight lane artificial track and full facilities. Shot and Discus circles are concrete. The main Grandstand seats 2000, and the Nelson Stand (to its left) a further 3000. The Knowles Stand (to the right) is used for marshalling track events. The whole area is enclosed by grass banking and there are more seats on the far side of the track, by the long jump pits. St John Ambulance is present throughout the day, and basic refreshments such as ice-creams and burgers are available, although athletes with more health conscious diets would do well to bring their own food.

Arrival & Registration

Each Area appoints team managers, who submit the names of their athletes and organise their team of event assistants. Children mostly travel individually or in school transport and meet their team managers at the stadium. They should find them in their area of the stadium as indicated on the plan, where they will be given numbers and pins. First string athletes wear odd numbers, and second strings wear even numbers. All athletes should wear them on the front and back, except high jumpers, only on the front. They should be fastened securely with four pins, at the sides. This seems pernickety, but people otherwise adopt a variety of styles, none of which is as easy to read by the track judges or as difficult to loosen and flap or fall off. Programmes and order of events are for sale at the entrance to the stadium, and there is an entrance fee for everybody who is not a competitor or official.

Diagram of the Alexander Stadium (not to scale)

Areas and Identification Numbers

1 & 2 VACANT 9 & 10 London 15 & 16 East 21 & 22 South West
3 & 4 Sussex 11 & 12 North East 17 & 18 Mercia 23 & 24 Wessex
5 & 6 Kelly 13 & 14 North West 19 & 20 Scotland 25 & 26 West Surrey
7 & 8 Kent

Odd numbers indicate First String Athletes, even numbers Second Strings.

Event Marshalling

Athletes should warm up in good time, and report to the right place shortly before their event starts. Track athletes report to the track marshal in the Knowles Stand (not to the start of their race), and field athletes directly to the event site. By judicious observation and by agreement with the judge, athletes involved in two events simultaneously should be able to arrange their trials at a field event so that they do not miss a round, for example taking their trial first in one round, and last in the next one. Unfortunately, if they do miss a round, they cannot take the lost trial later.

Rules, Regulations and Specifications

As far as possible, the meeting is run to UK:Athletics Rules for Competition, to which reference should be made first in the case of dispute, and administered by qualified officials from the MCAA. The Handbook of the English Schools Athletics Association is also taken into consideration. Our regulations and specifications are peculiar to this meeting, and are listed below, together with some standard rules which may be unfamiliar.

a) Under 13 athletes may not compete in 300m, 400m or Triple Jump.
b) field athletes should be aware that each round in a field event is an entity in itself, and missed trials are not allowed to be taken when the round has closed.
c) track athletes must remain quite still in the 'set' position, without rocking or leaning gradually forward, to avoid a false start.
d) note that treading on the white lines separating the lanes is against the rues and will result in disqualification.
e) throwers must stick scrupulously to the style dictated by the rules for their event.
f) no coaching is allowed within the competition area.
g) athletes should wear either plain shorts and singlets or their school strip. They are not allowed advertising of any kind (Coca Cola, Disneyland) and should not wear gaudy, merely decorative or souvenir clothing while competing. They should not club kit if school kit is available.
h) sprint athletes are seeded equally into heats, so that none is theoretically faster or slower than any other.
i) track finals will be composed of the winners of each heat and the fastest losers up to the number required. In the event of tied performances leading to more qualifiers than there are lanes, none of the athletes tying for the last place or places are eligible for the final.
j) 300m, 400m, 800m and 1500m races are seeded into graded races in the order of their submitted performances. The theoretically slowest race is run first, and the winning time told to subsequent races. There are no separate finals for these events.
k) 1500m races will use curved starting lines, and no part is run in lanes.
l) athletes may not compete in both 800m and 1500m races.
m) starting blocks are not permitted.
n) field athletes are all allowed three trials at each event, after which the leading eight will be allowed one more, except in High Jump, when they will be allowed up to three attempts at each height, until they have recorded three successive failures.
o) no throwing equipment not provided by the Championships organisers is permitted.
p) for safety reasons, the Discus may be held outside the main arena.

Specifications

a) 70m Hurdles are 68cm high and 7.0m apart.
b) 75m Hurdles are 76cm high and 7.5m apart.
c) High Jump Start Heights are as follows:
BOYS Under 14: 1.35 Under 13: 1.25 Under 12: 1.15
GIRLS Under 14: 1.10 Under 13: 1.05 Under 12: 1.00
The bar will be raised in units of 5cm until fewer than 9 competitors are left, then 3cm.
d) Under 14 Boys use a 3.25kg shot, 1.0kg discus and 600g javelin.
e) All other classes use a 2.72kg shot, 0.75kg discus and 400g javelin.

Officials

We try to obtain as many qualified officials as possible. They are assisted by staff from the various Areas, allocated as follows.
Track: South West (Marshalling), North East & North West (Place Judging),
Kelly (Timekeeping), All Areas (Relay Judging)
Field: West Surrey (High Jump), East (Distance Jumps),
Kent (Shot), London (Discus), Wessex (Javelin)
Admin: Sussex (Office & Control),
Mercia (Presentations, Equipment & Enquiries),
Winterfold School (Reception)

Results

Results are displayed on the corridor walls of the Grandstand, as soon as they have been checked for accuracy of names, etc. Athletes must have the patience to wait till this is done, as disturbing the compiler only makes the whole process longer. Full copies of the results are sent to Area managers to distribute later.

Medals and Certificates

These are awarded as soon as the results for each event have been confirmed, in front of the Grandstand, throughout the day. Athletes coming first, second or third in any field event or final should listen carefully to the announcer, who will announce when an award ceremony is imminent, and then go directly to the awards area unless they are involved in another event, in which case they should inform the presentations staff.

Sponsors’ Trade Stands

Bourne Sports and Ellis Brigham have stands at the Stadium. Souvenir T-shirts and sweatshirts specially designed for the event are on sale.

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