Update From Berkshire Schools' Athletics

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT BERKSHIRE SCHOOLS THIS YEAR:

U15 and U17 (Year 8/9 and 10/11) will take place on Saturday 12th June at Palmer Park Track in Reading (with the exceptions of hammer and discus - venue TBC)

U19 (Year 12/13) will not be in person and they will need to make sure they are competing in club competitions / South U20 champs (12th June) and will submit their best performances to the committee for possible selection for the English schools competition

U13 (Year 7) will take place on Thursday 1st July (4-6pm) at Palmer Park Track in Reading

There will be more information coming out very soon about how to enter as this will be very different to normal years where you would have to enter via district events.

For U15/U17 (juniors and inters):

For this year only we are allowing individual entries from individuals / schools / clubs via a google form. They will need to prove their performances (powerof10 competitions) and have achieved at least the district standard in their chosen event (only 1 event as per previously).

Once we have received all entries (the deadline will be Tuesday 25th May) then we will notify the top 12 athletes in each event and they will be able to compete in person on the day on the 12th June. Juniors will compete in the morning and inters in the afternoon with only 1 spectator (parent / coach / teacher) allowed at the venue.

As you can appreciate there are a lot of different things to consider when hosting events in covid times and we are governed by UKA / England Athletics guidance as well as specific guidance from the venue (Palmer Park). The way that we are running this event is in line with most other counties in the region and the best way to still have a championship event and allow the fairest method for selection for the English Schools Championships which has also had to change how it is being run for this year.

For the meantime please put this date in your dairies. Let your athletes know that they need to be competing in club level events to try and achieve the district standard in their event to be able to apply to enter (these are attached). Athletics age groups are Junior (U15) - years 8 and 9, Inters (U17) years 10 and 11 and Seniors (U19) years 12 and 13.

I will be sending out the google form for entering in the next week. I will also put this on twitter, facebook and the berkshire website. Please encourage your club athletes to attend club events to get times / distances in their respective events making sure that they achieve at least the district standard and then to enter when the google form comes out. They will have to the weekend of the 22/23rd May to complete any competitions. Hope this all makes sense!

Many thanks

Pip Kirkby

BSAA