I've been watching this thread and trying to stay out but...

Those of us who coach juniors and are club officials (WP and me are both) know that the biggest problem is parents rather than clubs or club coaches. I have stressed to parents a number of times that they shouldn't enter their children in incorrect age groups or totally underage. However they still do so and if blocked by the organiser then the kids still start but without numbers. Therefore I hope that the Club/coach isn't disciplined in these circumstances.

What I would like to see is a review of the distances because I do feel that some experienced (mainly male) runners aged 16 or 17 are perfectly capable of running some races over 6 miles. However there are also races that are close to the maximum limit for age that are very tough for kids at the lower end of the age range (an example is my daughter who found one FRA champs U18 race very tough and was distressed at the end, this race had an extra loop, in my mind purely to get the distance in). In practice we would all agree that if an individual is known to the organiser then allowing them to race underage is not a problem for the athlete but is very difficult on the insurance front.

Given that this is so controversial could the committee review and ideally have some scientific basis behind it. Possibilities include dropping the age limit to 17 for medium races etc.

I don't need a detailed argument on here but is this something that could be discussed in the normal circles?