Masters athletics selection

veganrun

This is something I've wondered about. There are various masters athletics competitions around, both national and international I think. How do they select people to compete at those? Is it different from other non masters events such as European/world championships etc? Do you have to get a qualifying standard to compete?

Just curious as to how to works.

rom

veganrun wrote: »

This is something I've wondered about. There are various masters athletics competitions around, both national and international I think. How do they select people to compete at those? Is it different from other non masters events such as European/world championships etc? Do you have to get a qualifying standard to compete?

Just curious as to how to works.

http://www.irishmastersathletics.com/ may help.

Hard Worker

veganrun wrote: »

This is something I've wondered about. There are various masters athletics competitions around, both national and international I think. How do they select people to compete at those? Is it different from other non masters events such as European/world championships etc? Do you have to get a qualifying standard to compete?

Just curious as to how to works.

The only one you have to qualify for is the British & Irish Masters Cross Country Championship. It's an annual event which rotates between the five "home" countries. The Gerry Farnan Cross Country race is usually the trial for selection. However, you must be a member of the Irish Master Athletes Association in order to be considered for selection.

happygoose

You can sign up on the day of the Gerry Farnan for the association. Membership is v cheap, something like a tenner.

From what I've seen the other competitions are a bit of a sham.
You can compete for Ireland if you've the air fare and can cover the costs. There should be qualifying standards.

Sacksian

happygoose wrote: »

From what I've seen the other competitions are a bit of a sham.
You can compete for Ireland if you've the air fare and can cover the costs. There should be qualifying standards.

To be fair, I think that once you get to the pointy end of the European or World Masters, the standard is pretty high. And I'd imagine it's only going to get higher in the future. So, for the most part, they're not handing out medals (although I'd agree some events are more obscure than others and the quality might be a bit thin in some).

But I agree that there should be minimum standards. I would like to run in one of these in the future though if I thought I'd be competitive. But I also think that there should minimum standards at national championships too (none for senior national track competition here).