UK Counties Athletic Union

England Athletics U20 & U23 Championships

In recent years the UKA CAU track and field championships have merged with the England Athletics Senior Championships. The Cross Country Championship has also acted as a trial for the World Championships.

The UK Counties Athletics Union’s main objectives are to develop and promote Inter County Competition in the athletics disciplines administered by UKA – track and field, cross country, road, race walking and fell running. The Championships are contested by all of the Counties or Athletics Associations which cover the whole of the UK (see below for details). The Union also does work to help and coordinate the efforts of the individual Counties to the mutual benefit of all of them.

The County Associations

England

Northern Ireland: athleticsni.org
Athletics Northern Ireland

Scotland: scottishathletics.org.uk
Scotland East District, Scotland North District, Scotland West District

Wales: welshathletics.org
East Wales Region, North Wales Counties, West Wales Region, South Wales Region

History

In 1925 a meeting held in the Offices of the AAA proposed that the County Associations were the proper body to be entrusted with the promotion of an Inter County Championship.  The meeting was attended by delegates from Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Middlesex, Norfolk, Suffolk, Surrey and Sussex. Thus the Counties Athletic Union was formed on Thursday 4th February 1926. This meeting also endorsed the staging of the first Inter County Cross Country Championship held at Beaconsfield on Saturday 3rd April 1926.

From their inception in 1925 through to the late sixties, apart from the war years 1940 – 1946, the CAU Inter County Track & Field Championships were a major international fixture held annually at the end of May, on what was then known as the Whitsun Bank Holiday.  The event has been held at the White City, Crystal Palace, Leicester, Birmingham, Corby, and in recent years at Bedford.

The Inter Counties Cross Country Championships equally became a major fixture in the athletics calendar and still plays an important role in endurance running, providing a high standard of competition for U13 to senior athletes.

The inter County Race Walking Championships are hosted by the Race Walking Association. The Inter County Fell Running Championships are hosted by the Fell Running Association.

Upcoming events

Access the full list of licensed cross country and track and field events in England