Club Championship Notes & Rules

Club Championship Notes & Rules

Below are the 2024 rules.

This year the championship 2024/25 – it runs from April to March, there are 20 races and runners need to do at least 8 – 3 road and 3 off road.

After a review in 2024, it was decided that the purpose of the club champs were set out as follows:

Opportunities for members to experience a variety of running types/terrains/skills
To give races that inspire and motivate members to run and take part at all levels
Opportunities to develop/foster camaraderie – give opportunities for us to meet up.

It’s less about:

Fostering a framework of competition within the club
Identifying the best runners in the club – i.e. finding the ‘club champions’. It could be argued that we already know who our faster runners are. By default however, the faster runners will inevitably be near or at the top of the overall results.

Races have been selected taking into account location, cost, ease of entry and to encourage greater turnout at some of our team events. Efforts are made to keep races reasonably local, most are within an hour of Buckley. For more distant events the club committee will try to encourage car shares to events – this may include organising ‘4 in a car’ club subsidies.

Club champs races will not clash with Borders League events.

Where possible the club champs races will not clash with other club events (like North Wales XC league), however clashes may well occur, especially when race dates change.

Specific Rules:

At least three races must be each of ‘road’ and ‘off-road’. The best other two scores from any other category make your eight qualifying races. If you want you can do more than eight races, in which case your best eight scores will count.
Points in the ‘Open Championship’ are awarded according to your finishing position in relation to other Buckley club runners (e.g. 1st=100 points, 2nd=99 and so on). Points in the ‘Age Graded Championship are calculated using the WMA tables and ranked according to your percentage score. Highest score =100, 2nd highest =99 and so on.
There are separate Age Graded Championships and Open Championships for men and women, making a total of four categories.
It is the responsibility of each member to fill in the appropriate boxes and submit your times on the web page below the club championship races table, for ‘any marathon or half marathon’. Alternatively you can PM or email either of the club champs coordinators.
Members should enter races as Buckley Runners and wear club vest and colours (a blue Buckley vest or blue Buckley tee-shirt) in order to earn club championship points with the exception of park runs. The championship coordinators may penalise anyone who continually ignores this request and may deduct points. Also, only races completed while a paid up member will be eligible (races run before joining or when membership subs were unpaid, will not count).
With regard to parkrun, please make sure that your profile has you down as Buckley Runners otherwise your result may not be picked up.
In the case of a tie, final championship positions will be decided on the basis of those events in which tied runners both competed. If still a tie, then:
for the ‘open championship’ tables, the member’s position overall in each race will be considered
for the ‘age graded’ tables, the sum of each member’s best 8 age graded percentages will be used
There will be a memento for each member who completes eight or more races in the year. This is achievable by everyone in the club.
There will also be a memento for each member who completes all races in the year.
If a race is cancelled in April to January, an alternative race will be found and notified as soon as possible. If the February race is cancelled and no alternative is possible, it will be replaced with a nominated parkrun in March of the equivalent type i.e. road for road. If a cancellation occurs in March, then no alternative race will be considered due to limited availability of suitable races and a date that would suit the majority of the Club Championship participants. If this situation occurs the Club Champions will be decided based on the results as of the day before the cancellation or the marathon closing date if later. It is therefore the responsibility of the participants to plan for these eventualities.
Prizes: In the open championship prizes/awards will be presented to the top 3 (male & female). In the Age Graded championship prizes/awards will be presented to the top 5 (male & female) – this in effect being the same number as if we had separate age-categories.
Prizes for the 2024 championships will go to members who have not received one already in the main championship.

If for example, the winner of the main championship is also in 1st place in the age adjusted category they will not be eligible for that prize as well. The prize will go instead to the next person with the most points who is eligible. Clearly as this is a trial, the situation at the end may be more complex – it will be up to the championship co-ordinators to make decisions as to how the prizes are best awarded. The general principle will be ‘one prize only per person’.

Any eventualities not covered by these rules, need to be raised with the Club Championship co-ordinators at the earliest opportunity, and any decision they make is final.

There are two types of Club Championship:

The Open Championship
The Age Graded Championship

What is an ‘Open Championship?’

This is a first past the post system where you get recognition for the position you achieved in the race regardless of age. 1st Buckley Runner back gets 100 points, 2nd gets 99 points, 3rd 98 points etc. This system tends to favour younger members of the club.

What is ‘age-grading’?

Age grading is a way to adjust an athlete’s performance according to age. The age-grading tables were developed by the World Master Association (WMA) – the world governing body for track and long distance running for veteran athletes. The tables work by recording the world record performance for each age at each distance, for men and women. Where necessary, the world record performances are estimated. The time you achieve in a race is then expressed as a percentage of the world record. The higher the percentage – the closer you are to the world record.

Why have an ‘age-graded Championship?

Age grading can be used to compare performances across different ages – so the performance in an event of a 75 year old can be compared to that of 35 year old. The age-adjusted time published by the club statistician is particularly useful for this purpose.

It does away with the need for separate age categories and does not mean that the younger athletes in an age category will have an advantage. E.g. A competitor aged 49 in the Male Vet 40 category is often at a disadvantage when competing against a 41 year old.

As you get older you are still able to try and improve your performance every year – rather than working to improve your time you just try to increase your percentage.

Older members are able to compete against younger members. This is a particularly important advantage with a small club such as ours, since members will not just be able to compete against others of similar age (if indeed there are any in their age category) but with everyone within the club

You can identify your best ever performance. You can set goals and targets for future events and years.

Marathon/Half Marathon submission Form click here