2023 Club Championship Rules

Below are the 2023 rules.

 
This year the championship runs from January to December, there are 14 races plus a marathon and runners need to do at least  7 -  3 road and 3 off road.

‘Why have the club championship’?  It is not just to find the best male and female runners in the club.  It is about,

• Giving races that inspire and motivate members to run and take part at all levels.

• Creating competition and motivation to train and run faster and recognise effort and ability across all members.

• Encouraging and developing camaraderie at events, building on the strong social element in the club.

The races are chosen to appeal and be available to all club members and cover a wide variety of distances, terrains (road, trail and hill), weekend and weekday events.  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 Chepstow.

The extra race is a marathon –  The cut off date for running a marathon will be 10th December in a championship year.  The marathon needs to be an officially measured one.

Once again, we have endeavoured to ensure that the club champs races do not clash with other club events including the fell series.

Specific  Rules

• At least three races must be each of ‘road’ and ‘off-road’.  The best other one scores from any other category make your seven qualifying races.  If you want you can do more than seven races, in which case your best seven scores will count.  Any or both of the extra races can also be used towards your road/off-road tally.

• Points in the ‘Open Championship’ are awarded according to your finishing position in relation to other CH club runners (eg. 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.

• Runners must run unassisted ie 2 legs and not 6, leave your furry friend at home.

• 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'. Alternatively you can PM or email Cherry or Tom.

• Members should enter races as Chepstow Harriers and wear club vest and colours (a blue vest or tee-shirt with a red hoop) 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 Chepstow Harriers otherwise your result will 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 champonship' tables, the member's position overall in each race will be considered

  • for the 'age graded' tables, the sum of each member's best 7 age graded percentages will be used

• There will be a memento for each member who completes seven 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 January to October, an alternative race will be found and notified as soon as possible.  If the November race is cancelled and no alternative is possible, it will be replaced with a nominated parkrun in December of the equivalent type ie road for road.  If a cancellation occurs in December, 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.

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:

1. The Open Championship

2. 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 Chepstow Harrier back gets 100 points, 2nd gets 99 points, 3rd 98 points etc. This system tends 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.

Click here to go to the WMA Age grading calculator: Calculator

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 but with everyone within the club

• You can identify your best ever performance.

• You can set goals and targets for future events and years.

Championship guidelines for co-ordinators resulting from 'mini-review' in 2023