The agreement reached in 1996 between representatives of the AAA of England and the Celtic Countries in respect of the recognition of common Track and Field Standards essentially remains in force. The performances listed hereunder apply to all British Athletics, irrespective of whether any Country intends, or not, to make Certificates and/or Badges available to their athletes.
With the advent of data bases of performances it has been decided to completely revise the standards tables every two years and to introduce standards for events which appear in the Power of 10 database. The method of revising the tables has been to look at the total number of performances recorded in the database and to try to pitch the standards such that the top 7.5% of performances would attain a grade 1 standard; the top 15% of performances a grade 2 standard; the top 30% a grade 3 standard; the top 65% a grade 4 standard. Some events have not been included due to there being insufficient data on which to base a realistic standard, i.e. performances by less than 50 individuals, however the Senior Women’s 3,000 metres Steeplechase and the Under 20 Women’s 2,000 metres Steeplechase have been included despite having less than 50 performances listed. Although the walks are not included in the Power of 10, their standards have been retained in the hope that more performances will be forthcoming. There are a few anomalies e.g. Grade 3 100 metres for Under 20 Women is faster than the corresponding grade for Senior Women. Similarly the Under 20 Women’s 800m grades are all slightly superior to the Senior grades and the Under 17 Women’s 1500m Steeplechase, grade 3 is superior to that of the Under 20 Women.
The Standards for Senior athletes are for guidance only as there are no badges available for that age group. It is recognised that this is the area where performances seem to be decreasing but perhaps this is due to the larger participation in area leagues rather than a diminishing performance at the
top levels – international and elite.
As in the previous tables indoor 60 metres and 60 metres Hurdles standards were fixed with two decimal places as most indoor competition now has
the advantage of photo finish.
Full details can be downloaded here. |
