Quick Links: Competitions New Officials Courses Next Steps SEAOA and other links
Contacts
County Officials Secretary’s |
County Officials Secretary (Availability) |
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Peter Kennedy |
Christel Shaw |
John Linfield |
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Email: |
click here |
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Phone: |
07808 033532 |
07752900617 | 01903 784335 |
County track and field competitions where your assistance would be welcome
Click on the name of any competition listed below to see the current list of officials scheduled to attend
2024 | Event | Venue |
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County Fixtures | ||
Fri 26 Apr | Sussex U15 League East (1) | Withdean Sports Complex,Tongdean Ln, Withdean, Brighton BN1 5JD |
Fri 26 Apr | Sussex U13 League - West (1) | K2 Leisure Centre Pease Pottage Hill, Crawley RH11 9BQ |
Fri 3rd May | Sussex U15 League - (1) | Withdean Sports Complex,Tongdean Ln, Withdean, Brighton BN1 5JD |
Sat 11th/Sun12th May | Sussex Track & Field Championships | K2 Leisure Centre Pease Pottage Hill, Crawley RH11 9BQ |
Mon 20th May | Sussex Masters League (1) | Lewes Leisure Centre, Mountfield Rd, Lewes BN7 2XG |
Fri 24th May | Sussex U13 League - East (2) | Lewes Leisure Centre, Mountfield Rd, Lewes BN7 2XG |
Fri 24th May | Sussex U13 League - West (2) | Worthing Leisure Centre, Shaftesbury Avenue, Worthing, BN12 4ET |
Weds 29th May | Sussex Schools Combined Events | |
Fri 31st May | Sussex u15 League (2) | Withdean Sports Complex,Tongdean Ln, Withdean, Brighton BN1 5JD |
Sun 2nd June | Sussex Masters Field Championships | TBC |
Sat 8th June | Sussex Schools Championships | K2 Leisure Centre Pease Pottage Hill, Crawley RH11 9BQ |
Weds 12th June | Sussex Masters League (2) | Eastbourne Sports Park, Cross Levels Way, Eastbourne BN21 2UF |
Fri 21st June | Sussex U15 League (3) | Withdean Sports Complex,Tongdean Ln, Withdean, Brighton BN1 5JD |
Fri 28th June | Sussex U13 League West (3) | The Bridge Leisure Centre, Wickhurst Lane, Broadbridge Heath, Horsham, RH11 9BQ |
Fri 28th June | Sussex U13 League East (3) | Eastbourne Sports Park, Cross Levels Way, Eastbourne BN21 2UF |
Sat 6th July | Sussex U13 championships and U11 Quadkids | K2 Leisure Centre Pease Pottage Hill, Crawley RH11 9BQ |
Mon 22 July | Sussex Masters League (3) | Lewes Leisure Centre, Mountfield Rd, Lewes BN7 2XG |
Fri 2nd Aug | Sussex Masters League (4) | Eastbourne Sports Park, Cross Levels Way, Eastbourne BN21 2UF |
Fri 30th Aug | Sussex U15 League (4) | Withdean Stadium, Tongdean Lane, withdean, Brighton BN1 5JD |
Sun 1st Sep | Sussex Under 13 League Final and Sussex 3k Champs | K2 Leisure Centre Pease Pottage Hill, Crawley RH11 9BQ |
Regional Fixtures | ||
Sat 15th June | Sussex Schools Inter-Counties | Stone x Stadium Greenlands Lane London NW4 1RL |
Sat 22nd/Sun 23rd June | Regional Schools Combined Events | TBA |
Sat 27th or Sun 28th July | U13 Inter Counties | TBC |
EDM usage
Any athletics meeting in Sussex with a UKA permit is welcome to use one of the Sussex EDM kits. The charge is £60 per day.
The list of current bookings is to be found via Sussex EDM usage. New Bookings can be made via the County Officials Secretary.
Qualifying as an Official
Being an official is fun and rewarding, if you would like to know if officiating is for you England Athletics has lots of helpful information on their website here. Support and resources to help with your officiating journey also can be found here.
Current Training Courses
Choose the Level 1 module which suits you, plus the two online general modules for Health & Safety and Safeguarding, if you haven’t already completed them previously. For Endurance officiating, also complete the Risk Assessment Module after the Level 1 Endurance Officiating course. At present almost all Level 1 training is held as virtual courses.
Most clubs will be willing to refund any payment you have made for this training.
Bookings for these courses can be done online via the England Athletics website. Firstly read about Step 1 of the officiating journey and then book a course via the Athletics Hub. If you don’t find a face to face course in your area or a virtual course for your discipline listed in the search tool on the Athletics Hub, then you should complete the expression of interest form and England Athletics will let you know when a new course is setup. Copies of all the course materials are to be found here.
If you are waiting to go on a course, why not attend some of the club and county athletics meetings and start to gain experience in your discipline? You may find the training course then means a lot more to you and you may be able to achieve level 1 certification immediately if you have attended four meetings.
For training in the setup and operation of an EDM contact the County Officials Secretary.
Next Steps
A minor but important part of being an official is to keep your contact details up-to-date. The only person who knows when something needs to change is you! You can help everyone by using the England Athletics Portal to update your own information. This must include a passport-sized photo of yourself. This page is the same page as athletes and coaches use but usage by new officials will be set up as soon as you are enrolled in an officials training course and you will then receive your Universal Registration Number (URN). For guidance with this refer to the England Athletics Portal Help page. If you are still not sure what to do, then contact one of the County Officials secretaries for help.
As soon as you have signed up for a training course you should also undergo a DBS check, which has to be repeated every three years, to help safeguard young people and vulnerable adults whilst they are participating in athletics. For more details refer to the information provided by England Athletics here. When you follow the online process via your England Athletics Portal, you will be asked to choose someone to review the three forms of identity document you have selected. There will be at least one authorised evidence checker/verifier at your club whom you can go to. Alternatively, you can choose the County Officials Secretary to check/verify your documents by looking under the club called “Sussex”.
Besides helping at your club fixtures, the best opportunity to gain experience as an official without travelling too far is to help at the county events. You will find there many experienced officials to guide you in whatever role you are fulfilling and whether you are qualified or not. The event leaders will “mentor” trainee officials so that they can go away feeling they had an enjoyable (but possibly tiring) day as well as learning a lot.
Track & Field Officials Accreditation
You should start to record these experiences without waiting to attend the training course using the application form for Level 1 accreditation, which is accessible on the UKA officials page for track & field officiating documents:
https://www.uka.org.uk/officials/track-and-field/education-and-training/level-1-2-3-track-and-field/
You can apply for accreditation for level 1, as soon as you have completed the following:
- Level 1 training course
- Health and Safety course (online)
- Safeguarding course (online)
- DBS Check
- A minimum of 4 competition experiences
The above webpage also has all the other documents of relevance to Level 1, 2 and 3 for track & field officiating
The requirements to move to higher levels are described on the England Athletics webpage for the Officiating Journey. You become a fully qualified official for your club by reaching level 2 and your club needs several level 2 officials in each discipline in order to fulfil its obligations in track & field competitions. Level 3 judges are needed to lead the county events.
If you are thinking of continuing towards level 2 as soon as you have achieved level 1, it is worthwhile using the online Record of Experience which is accessible via your England Athletics Portal to record your level 1 experiences, so that they will also count towards the level 2 accreditation. The online form asks you to provide your learnings from each event, which is a key element of achieving the higher levels. You should ask for help from a level 2 qualified official if you are unsure what to say. Anyone using this Record of Experience is asked to send the County Officials Secretary a copy at the end of September each year covering the preceding 12 months.
Completed applications for all levels should be sent to officialsaccreditation@englandathletics.org, with a copy to the County Officials Secretary
Endurance Officials Accreditation
The principles given above apply to accreditation as an endurance official as well, except that you can apply for accreditation for level 1 when you have completed the following:
- Level 1 training course
- Risk awareness course
- Health and Safety course (online)
- Safeguarding course (online)
- DBS Check
- A minimum of 4 competition experiences
The application form for level 2 accreditation is accessible on the UKA officials page for endurance officiating documents:
https://www.uka.org.uk/competitions/officials/endurance-officials/
Completed applications for all levels should be sent to officialsaccreditation@englandathletics.org, with a copy to the County Officials Secretary (Endurance)
Clothing and Equipment
Once you start to gain experience, you will quickly realize that officiating is more enjoyable with the right equipment, starting with a weatherproof clipboard and waterproof clothing. As soon as you help officiate at a county track & field championships, you will be given a Sussex officials sweatshirt and fleece. We plan to expand the opportunities for obtaining the right equipment but for now you can refer to the following websites:
- Neuff Athletic Equipment for all track and field equipment
- AthleticTM for technical manager support
and also be aware that much of what you will need is available by improvising with clothing/stationery/hardware that is not specific to athletics.
UKA Rules Book
All qualified officials should have a copy of the current UKA rule book as part of their kit they take to every fixture. There is a new edition published every 2 years. You can purchase a copy of the A5-sized rule book via the UKA Rules website but this will not normally be necessary because Sussex County Athletics has copies for distribution to all active officials at level 2 and above or those working towards their level 2 – contact the County Officials Secretary to get your copy. There is also an electronic copy of the rule book on the UKA Rules webpage, which can be useful in searching for specific information as well as details of the changes in a new version of the rule book.
Other Useful Links
Once you have qualified as Level 1 official there is no more official training until national level 4, but as well as learning by experience there are other ways to expand your knowledge:
- Join the South England Athletics Officials Association and benefit from members’ offers and a variety of presentations and hands-on training at their annual conference.
SEAOA publish a variety of documents for each discipline including “How to Judge Field Events” book and “Oh No! You’ve been asked to be Field Referee” - Refer to Run Britain for guidance on becoming a race director or event adjudicator
- Attend the officials’ conferences organised by England Athletics and UKA. Details of these events and other training opportunities can be found on the England Athletics Officials News page