All England Marathon Club Team Championships

England Athletics are pleased to announce the addition of the inaugural All England Marathon Club Team Championships to the autumn road running competition programme. This championship event aims to provide club runners the with opportunity to compete against one another as a single club unit at the popular MBNA Chester Marathon on Sunday 6 October 2019. Club runners of all abilities will be able to contest for a national team title in a mixed team format. Affiliated Clubs will compete in one of three categories depending on the size of their club. England Athletics will present medals & trophies to the top three clubs in each of the categories, providing clubs both large and small the chance to become national champion title winners.

Clubs may encourage as many runners as they like to compete. Teams will be scored using a cross-country scoring system with points being awarded to the scoring runners as per their male and female finishing positions. The first complete teams in each group with the lowest scores will be declared the winners subject to UK competition rules. However, as in cross-country, non-scoring club runners will also impact on the overall team positions by pushing back scoring runners from other clubs and so all competing club runners potentially impact on the team results.

England Athletics Road Running Manager, Charlotte Fisher said, "We are pleased to be once again working with the organisers of the MBNA Chester Marathon in providing this new, exciting competition opportunity. It gives affiliated clubs of all sizes a realistic opportunity to compete as a team in a national championships event and we hope will appeal to new clubs as well as the more established clubs from across the country."

Chris Hulse, joint-Race Organiser added, "We are delighted that the MBNA Chester Marathon has been chosen to host this new club team event. From the superb Chester Racecourse venue our fast, predominately flat course which heads through the city then out into the picturesque Cheshire Countryside will give the runners a race to remember!"

How does my club get involved?

• Club runners enter Chester Marathon individually under their first claim affiliated club www.activeleisureevents.co.uk/marathon
• Club Secretaries or Team Managers must declare their interest to compete as a team with England Athletics by registering their interest no later than 31 July 2019.
• The Marathon Organisers will determine whether a Club competes in category A, B, or C.
• England Athletics will send the nominated Club Team contact details of competing teams, groups and full competition rules following the closing deadline. This information will also be online.

Club categories

The allocation of clubs to A, B or C categories will be based on the total number of active/registered athletes 18 years+ for the 2018-2019 affiliation year as per the year end on 31 March, 2019.

A Group (over 175 registered runners) - 5 men, 4 women to score
B Group (100-175 registered runners) - 4 men, 3 women to score
C group (less than 100 registered runners) – 3 men, 2 women to score

Note: this mixed team competition format at Chester will be in addition to the established England Marathon Club Championships held annually within the Virgin Money London Marathon in April. London will once again see the top performances by male and female club athletes recognised in the traditional format, with the top three fastest performances by club athletes being totalled to a team time and an overall men’s club team winner and overall women’s club team winner.