This year we held our club champs events for juniors aged 7+ on Sunday 16th March. It was a hot sunny morning - some creativity required to keep cool!
7-9 year olds completed 4 events over the course of the morning (100m, 800m, long jump and shot put).
Our 10+ athletes competed in the same 4 events, plus high jump as well.
We had a fantastic crew of parents, coaches and senior athletes helping us run the events - we appreciate your efforts! Special shout out to Ange and the Collective for the yoghurt pouches - helping to keep the athletes cool and fuelled over the morning. And to Terence for the fantastic photos. We've included some highlights in this post, but you can see the full collection here.
It was so good to see you all out there giving it heaps. Even the parents had a go - congratulations to our speedy parent champs Gary and Andreea!
Event results
7-9 year olds
10+ year olds
Calculating the champs
Of course for there to be championships, there must be champions!
This year, we will again calculate overall results using a simple points-based system for our 7-9 athletes and for 10+ using IAAF scoring tables for combined events - if you missed last year's event (or have forgotten!) here's Nanne's explanation:
This is a way to be able to compare and add up performances of very different events. For each event there is a formula that gives a result in points. They made the formulas such that 1000 points is equal to the Olympic Record (of 1912!!!) and 0 points is what an untrained schoolkid would make of it. The IAAF does not say HOW OLD an untrained schoolkid, whether this is about a Y1 or a Y13. We think that a lot of younger untrained schoolkids could not even complete for instance an 800m, so probably the zero point was chosen for somewhat older schoolkids.
Do not get demotivated if you have a very low score on some event despite training; by eating spinach and playing outside you will automatically get better!
We do know that the tables are used for Combined Events for 11YO, so we thought we could use it for 10YO at the club champs. Indeed there are no separate formulas for kids! The IAAF has as objective that the system can be used for beginners, juniors and top athletes. This is great because you can use the same points system all your athletics career comparing with your younger self and across events. There are only different tables for males and females, that's it!
If you want to read more about this, here's the entire history.
So who comes out top on points?
All will be revealed at prizegiving on 8th April, where we award our historic cups to age group winners as well as some special recipients. Don't forget to RSVP so we know who's coming.
It's always nice to hold an event at our home track, and the combined-event morning format worked well again this year. The picnic wrap up was a good chance to catch up, debrief, and share some kai - a good addition to the morning, we think. As always, your feedback is welcome.
Once again, well done to you all!
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