Rules Of Competition

Athletics has a set of rules for Competition and a series of official notification periods for proposed changes to them.

UK Athletics governs the Rules for Competition for the following disciplines:

• Track and Field Competition

• Road Running Competition

• Cross Country Running
• Fell and Hill Running
• Race Walking
• Trail Running

The UK Athletics Rules for Competition are published every two years.  The current rule book runs from April 1 2008 to March 31 2010.

Rulebook 2010

Statement by Cherry Alexander - Head of Competition & International Relations

The new edition of the UKA Rule Book will be produced in 2010.  We are giving the opportunity for interested parties to make suggestions for changes for that new edition. You may find the following guidelines of some assistance:-

1. Recommendations should only come from Home Countries, English Regions, affiliated Clubs and Associations via a Club/Association Management Committee or Annual General meeting.

2. Suggestions from individuals will only be considered if they have the support of the Club/Association.  These details must be included.

3. Ideally it would be beneficial if the recommendation has the support of more than one Club/Association.

4. Recommendations should not include precise wording for the proposed change – these will be considered later.

5. All suggested recommendations should be received by the 31st July 2009 at the latest.

6. Please direct proposals by post to me at UKA and an acknowledgement letter will be returned to you.

When the deadline date has been reached, the various recommendations will be referred to the appropriate Advisory Groups and the UKA Technical Committee.  If accepted, the changes will be passed to the Rules Advisory Group for final wording.

Please also note that a number of potential technical rule changes will have to await the outcome of the IAAF Congress in Berlin in August 2009.

Every club secretary is sent a copy of the new rule book on publication but additional copies can be purchased at a cost of £5.50 + pp, from: 

UK Athletics Book Centre    
5 Church Road                                                                                                  Bookham                                                                                                            Surrey                                                                                                            
KT23 3PN
Telephone  01372 452804
Fax   01372 458005                                                                               Website www.ukathleticsbookcentre.co.uk

Alternatively you can download the rulebook by clicking the link below – please be aware though that the document contains a large number of pages.

In addition to the rules contained in the above publication, there are also separate rules relating to anti-doping. These can be found in the Anti-doping section.
If you have an enquiry regarding a specific rule, then you can e-mail us with your query.