The Club Championship is a one-day* club competition that is separate from the Club night competition, and is generally held on a “free” Saturday in February or March. It has a separate points system,
as follows:
3 points for 1st, 2 for 2nd, and 1 for 3rd.
2 bonus points are also added for breaking a Record, and 1 point for equalling a Record.
If there are TIES (Dead Heats) in an event, the athletes who tie share the points for that placing. (This is the case in ANY competition).
So, if there is 1st= the tied athletes get 1½ points each, and the next athlete is 3rd (1 point) – there is no 2nd.
If there is 2nd= the tied athletes get 1 point each, and there is no 3rd.
If there is 3rd= the tied athletes get ½ point each.
So it’s: 1st=, 1st=, 3rd; 1st, 2nd=,2nd=; 1st, 2nd, 3rd=, 3rd=.
This is the competition – and the only occasion – in which Club Records can be broken (or equalled), or new Records set.
Athletes can do as many events as they wish for this competition.
After each event, athletes who get a placing must go to the recording table to get their placing (and any Record) recorded. They will be given a Place ribbon. Each athlete’s points for the whole competition are added up. The athletes with the 3 highest points totals will be placed 1st, 2nd, and 3rd overall in their age group and receive Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals for this at club Prize giving.
The boy and girl with the highest total points out of all the age groups also win a trophy for that achievement at club Prize giving.
And athletes will also receive a Record Certificate for any Record they break or equal, which will also recorded in the official club Record book, and at the back of our club booklet.
The Club Championship is held on a Saturday because it includes all events, which would be impossible to do on a week night, and spreading the events out over different club nights is not practical.
*The Club Championship 1500m, 2000m, & 3000m events cannot be fitted into the Saturday programme, so they are generally run separately, on a weekday evening close to the Club Championship day. 2000m is for 10 & 11 Boys & Girls. 3000m is for 12 & Over Boys & Girls.
Why can Club Records only be broken at the Club Champs?
Because this is historically the only occasion that club events have been officially recorded for this purpose.
For club records to be valid and true, every athlete (historically)
must have had the same opportunity to break them all.
And the club Champs has always been the only opportunity.
If our club records were opened up to any event/occasion,
for a start, a new set of records would have to be started, with all existing records becoming “historical records”.
And then, to make new records valid and true, every race at every meeting, including club nights, would have to be officially timed – and we are really not able to do that.
Likewise, we would have to guarantee we had the official results of every Field event at every meeting that any of our athletes competed in, which would be hard to do, and it would also be too time consuming to run the club night field events according to championship procedure.
But in any case, we couldn’t have field records “open” and track records confined to the Club Championship –
All club records must be treated the same.