New Policies to be Applied at upcoming AO Championships

Coaches and athletes entered in provincial championships or Prep meets should note that in track events all athletes must check in for each event  at the designated area no sooner than 60 minutes and no later than 30 minutes prior to the published or revised start time.  Athletes not checked during the required time frame will not be allowed to compete in the event.  The intent of this rule is ensure that qualifying heats or timed sections are full and fairly seeded.  

In relay events run as Provincial Championships all athletes on a team must wear identical club tops.  Coaches and managers should have spare tops at the meet in case of an emergency.  Relay teams and all possible runners must now be entered on the Sunday evening of the week prior to the competition.  The names of the four runners and their running order, however, need not be submitted until one hour before the event start time.   

Seed times from both the current indoor season and 2009 outdoor season may be submitted.  In the case of the latter, these will only be used where the athlete hasn't achieved an indoor time in the event or an equivalent event this season.  Our hope is to use  AO's Hy-Tek result and ranking system to verify and in some cases provide seed times.  Estimated times will no longer be accepted.  Athletes without a performance at all in an event will not be placed in any of the top sections. 

To be on the safe side, coaches are urged to plan carefully so as to ensure that their athletes have at least one opportunity to achieve a good indoor seed time prior to the major championships. 

In all track events bib numbers will be worn on the front.

The 2010 edition of Policies and Procedures for the Staging of Provincial Championships is now available at the AO website.