Wearing Club Vest in Nationals

TheRoadRunner

Ran the GI run the weekend which also incorporated the national 10k. On the application form and other places it states that AAI club runners must wear their club singlets to be eligible for AAI medals etc. I noticed not all club runners complied and in particular Martin Fagan wasn't wearing his vest, conversely Joe Sweeney was.

Now I have absolutely no problem with this and am not looking for disqualifications etc However my club vest isn't the most comfortable and I would have worn something lighter as it was a quite warm day. I know it's a hard thing to marshal when the AAI race is incorporated into a much larger event but a little bit of consistency would be nice.

As I being a bit of a prat?

donothoponpop

I remember when you used to be so cool, man

You're right, if you're suffering because of abiding by the rules, its a bit galling to see others getting away with it. Down to the RD to enforce the rules though, so that's bad form on their part.

robinph

You have to follow the rules I reckon, just because he was the fastest Irish entry doesn't exclude you from having to follow them.

The team that finished in 2nd place in the UK womens national 6 leg relays at the weekend got disqualified for trying to fiddle the rules. Nothing to do with wearing of team vests, but mixing up their A and B teams in order to get around rules against a couple of their runners competing in the A team got them kicked out.

mloc123

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

I noticed not all club runners complied and in particular Martin Fagan wasn't wearing his vest

I guess Reebok don't sponsor Mullingar Harriers(still his club?)

dna_leri

That rule is what's called "a technicality" which they can use to disqualify you if they don't like you or if your "A sample" failed or someone just wanted to be a prat.

Hard Worker

dna_leri wrote: »

That rule is what's called "a technicality" which they can use to disqualify you if they don't like you or if your "A sample" failed or someone just wanted to be a prat.

As far as I know ( not 100% sure on this ) you don't have to wear a club singlet in road events of 10K or longer. A plain singlet will suffice, subject to the usual advertising regulations.

myflipflops

Hard Worker wrote: »

As far as I know ( not 100% sure on this ) you don't have to wear a club singlet in road events of 10K or longer. A plain singlet will suffice, subject to the usual advertising regulations.

Yeah, the rules are sticky and change for certain events. Plain singlets are certainly allowed in certain cases.

In Fagans case, I suspect he was wearing his Reebok gear as part of his sponsorship agreement because the race was on TV.

emerald007

I'd agree in principle with TheRoadRunner on this but the more important and missing point is that at present no team results are currently available for this race on the AAI website.

On this point

plain singlets are certainly allowed in certain cases.

- When you have the big row with your club and decide to run an AAI event as an individual runner then a plain white vest is supposed to be worn.

TheRoadRunner

emerald007 wrote: »

I'd agree in principle with TheRoadRunner on this but the more important and missing point is that at present no team results are currently available for this race on the AAI website.

On this point

plain singlets are certainly allowed in certain cases.

- When you have the big row with your club and decide to run an AAI event as an individual runner then a plain white vest is supposed to be worn.

Had just checked AAI site myself this morning and was wondering what the delay was.

If you're wearing a white singlet you should not be eligible for team medals IMO. My understanding (don't know if there is any basis for this) was that wearing the club vest allowed competitors pick out members of clubs that may be rivals for medals. I know we all know who Martin Fagan is but there were other clubs members there with no vests. I should add that the number I spotted was quite small.

thirstywork2

I suppose you could say Martin is a full time athlete and makes a living through the sport so he would have to wear the reebok kit.

I don't think you are being a prat but if you have issues I would send a mail to AAI and try get an answer there rather than posting up here !!!

DaveH

Something that always get up my back is athletes not wearing club gear. If you have the wrong colour socks\shorts in a soccer or rugby match you cant play end of. Same should apply in athletics.

On this point, when Cragg ran the National X in 2008, he wore the clonliffe singlet, I did notice that his was the only Clonliffe singlet with the "adiddas" logo on it.
Cragg is sponsored by adiddas, yet he still wore the correct singlet and shorts!

Hard Worker

DaveH wrote: »

Something that always get up my back is athletes not wearing club gear. If you have the wrong colour socks\shorts in a soccer or rugby match you cant play end of. Same should apply in athletics.

On this point, when Cragg ran the National X in 2008, he wore the clonliffe singlet, I did notice that his was the only Clonliffe singlet with the "adiddas" logo on it.
Cragg is sponsored by adiddas, yet he still wore the correct singlet and shorts!

Club singlets must be worn in cross country championship events. Long distance road races are different ( I'm assuming that the rule hasn't changed in the last few years ).

TheRoadRunner

Hard Worker wrote: »

Club singlets must be worn in cross country championship events. Long distance road races are different ( I'm assuming that the rule hasn't changed in the last few years ).

You would be better informed of the rules than me but on the application form (attached) it stated "Club singlets must be worn to qualify for championship medals, championship medals will be awarded to the first three individuals in each category"

It's not a major issue for me really, I doubt I'll be in the medals any time soon so will wear a comfortable non-club singlet in future

Seres

I really dont think its a big ask to expect people to wear their club singlets on the day , like the fact of the matter is its through your club affiliation that you are allowed to take part . However i dont expect the AAI should be bothered trying to sort this out at the moment till they get more fundamental issues sorted like registering people correctly and posting results promptly !

robinph

As others said, if your not wearing your club kit then you do not count as a member of that club for the team events. Maybe you get to still run by being an invited fast runner and can win for being 1st Irishman, but your not part of the club team unless your identifiable as part of that team.

wgtomblin

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

I know it's a hard thing to marshal when the AAI race is incorporated into a much larger event but a little bit of consistency would be nice.

Fair point.
Teams have been disqualified for runner(s) not wearing club vest in the past. The rule should be applied consistently, but in reality, it's probably left up to someone to make an objection before it's enforced.