Officials are a vital part of the sport of athletics and running.
Our ‘Officials Progression Guide’ is available to explain what is needed at each stage of the progression for Track & Field, Endurance and Race Walking as an athletics Official. Aside from Officials there are also roles involved in road running that you can become involved in.
Getting started on the officiating journey
See our guide for full details of how to progress as an Official, but your first step to becoming a licensed official is to attend an Assistant Official, Level 1 Track & Field, Endurance or Race Walking Officials’ Course, plus a Health and Safety course.
A DBS check is required for anyone to hold an Officials’ licence. Your DBS check needs to be renewed every three years for your licence to remain valid. Details of how to go through this process are at www.englandathletics.org/DBS.
You will need to submit details of your appropriate officiating experiences on your Licence Application Form.
A Record of Experience form should then also be completed each year by all licensed Officials (those looking to progress through the levels should also return this separately as part of this upgrading process as detailed in the Officials Progression Guide.
Officials’ levels
Since April 2016 the levels of Officials’ licence are as follows:
- Assistant Official
- Level 1
- Level 2
- Level 3
- Level 4 – Track and Field equivalent to IAAF Level 1 TOEC (Technical Officials Education Certification System)
- Level 5 – Track and Field equivalent to IAAF International Technical Official (ITO), European International Technical Official (ATO), IPC International Technical Official (ITO), IAAF Level 2 TOEC (Technical Officials Education Certification System). Endurance equivalent to Level 5 International / AF / EuroA Level
If you wish to progress to higher levels of officiating please see details in the Officials Progression Guide which covers Track & Field, Endurance and Race Walking
Becoming a road running Race Director or Event Adjudicator
Race Directors’ Club
The runbritain Race Directors Club has been created to be a resource to help race organisers to deliver better events. After registering and logging in you can access:
- Support and Information such as the Race Directors’ Handbook, plus the fact sheets which support this
- Licensing – Firstly, apply for a licence for your event. On successful application your event is automatically added to the event diary and the facility to open your race to online entry on the main site will become available.
- You are also then entitled to access the runbritain Race Director Courses at accredited and intermediate level
England Athletics hold Gun to Tape workshops which aims to help distance running clubs, and new or existing event organisers putting on road or multi-terrain races. This introductory workshop provides clubs with both inspiration and information around setting up a new event or revitalizing an existing one. See ‘Development & opportunities’ for details.
Event Adjudicators
All UKA / runbritain licensed road races are scrutinised by an Event Adjudicator to ensure compliance with licence standards.
If you are interested in this role then please go to the runbritain website and login to the site and click on the green “event adjudicators” tab underneath the welcome message. Here you will find details and a series of FAQ’s on the role.