Club standards

24 January 2017 - By Marc Underdown

Last year, one of our members brought a query about the club standards to the committee’s attention. That triggered a much deeper look at the club standards, which identified a number of issues, including:

• The standards were relatively easier to achieve as the distance increased.
• The standards were relatively easier to achieve as you went up the age categories.
• The standards for females were easier to achieve than the men’s equivalent standards.

The idea of the club standards is that they should be of equivalent standing regardless of age, gender or distance. It was therefore necessary to update them.

The committee reviewed several proposals before deciding on the new standards which are now updated on the relevant webpage, under Awards. These new standards are now consistent so that the Diamond standard represents achieving 79% of the world’s best time, gold 71%, silver 63% and bronze 55%.

In making the changes, some of the standards have become easier, and some harder. We have also taken the decision to remove the 15 mile and 20 mile distances from the club standards, as these distances are rarely run and are not compatible with how the new standards have been calculated.

The new standards took effect on 1 January, and will apply going forward. We will look at runners who are adversely affected by the changes on a case by case basis in deciding whether a person qualifies for a standard within their current age group.

Any questions, please let me know.