SYSAA Cross Country Selection Policy
The Selection Committee shall be made up of:
An Officer of the Association to act as Chair
The Association Secretary
Four members representing the interests of the four constituent areas i.e. Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield plus other association officers.
A quorum shall be any four of the above.
The Selection Committee shall meet after the conclusion of our Championships to confirm, select and determine the running order of the teams who will participate in
a) any Inter-County Competitions
b) the ESAA Championships.
The Selection Committee are committed to select the first 6 athletes who cross the finishing line in each age group, except Y7, as members of the team, provided that they are available to compete on the prescribed date of the relevant Championship.
They are then charged with selecting 2 more athletes to make up the team and nominating up to 4 non-travelling reserves.
The two discretionary places can be allocated in one of several ways:
1) the next seventh and eighth finishers in our Championship could be selected
2) the seventh finisher is selected and one other claimant/non-competing athlete is chosen
3) two claimants/non-competing athletes are chosen.
In considering claimants/non-competing athletes the following scenarios are considered:
a) an athlete is unavailable to compete in our Championships for any of the following reasons:
International duty in this or any other sport
Illness
Injury – the Committee will want reassurances including medical reports that the athlete will be fit to run
Personal reasons – e.g. family trauma
b) performances which have been recorded in the recent past at major events e.g. County or Northern Championships
c) any other reason for not competing – e.g. vehicle breakdown on the way to the Championships.
In the event of severe weather causing the cancellation of our Championships, the Selection Committee reserves the right to select the whole team based on all available evidence and results.
The area representatives decide on the final composition of the teams and the running order. The running (pen) order is decided using available evidence from recent races and the performance at our Championships. Our criteria of selecting the first six athletes from each of our Championship races does not indicate/guarantee that those six athletes will be deemed to be the first 1-6 in the pen.
The Secretary then issues the invitations to the selected athletes.
Any reserves that are called up into the team will always start at the back of the pen.
The team composition and the results of the Championships are then posted to the ESAA (SYCAA section) website.
Policy agreed January 2009