Age limits

[Witton Park]

I believe there are significant differences between the manner in which the track & field and X/C disciplines operate as compared with fell running.

As I understand it track & field and X/C are totally club focussed with events frequently being part of leagues and the individuals would usually be entered (pre-entered?) by their clubs who are fully conversant with the UKA age category rules for juniors.

The situation is very different for fell running.

For 2012 the FRA has provided Permits for over 150 events which have races specifically for juniors. In addition there are about 250 Short Category Senior races which some juniors are eligible to enter. Some of the juniors entering will be unattached. Several of the juniors and their parents may not be very conversant with the "age on 1st Jan" rule.

The vast majority of this very large number of races have entry on the day of the race, often with a couple of hundred people entering in a relatively short period of time with little time for the officials to be checking the Category entered against the date of birth on the form to see if a junior runner is entering the correct category.

It seems to me that under these circumstances "age on the day" of the race is much more straightforward to understand and operate by all those involved including race organisers, officials, junior runners, parents etc.

As already mentioned special arrangements can be made for the six Junior Championship races to ensure that an individual remains in the same Category throughout the season.

OK, so when the statistical check was done, it was clear that the rule breaches were not as a result of lack of understanding, they were down to lack of respect for the rules and the ROs...
The Bunny Runs have been singled out - but we all know that these races are clearly for U14s and there have been cases of Juniors who were even U10s running.

Those juniors come from clubs such as Wharfedale and Ilkley and the runners and their connections know full well that this is against the rules of the FRA so what action has been taken against them or their clubs?
Nothing I dare say.

No, instead we change the rules.

These rule changes will not stop such wanton, intentional breaches.