A number of clubs have been disqualified from the Northern 6 Stage Road Relay Championships, held on Saturday (September 16), including second placed Salford Harriers.

The statement from Northern Athletics said that a number of clubs ran athletes who were ineligible because they had failed to pay their England Athletics affiliation for 2017/18 on or prior to race, leaving runners and clubs ineligible to compete.

Clubs that have been disqualified are now ineligible to compete at the National Road Relay Championships, and according to the rules, club entry for the 2018 Northern Road Relay Championships may be refused.

Of the 114 clubs that competed, the ineligible clubs included Salford Harriers, who finished second, and Leeds City, who finished fifth, prior to disqualification.

Marc Brown, who ran for Salford Harriers’ A team on Saturday said: “This is an example of the mindlesss bureaucratisation of our sport, whereby obscure rules and regulations cloud what is an essentially simple concept. 

“Sean ( our team captain) had obviously checked all this out beforehand and there were no issues, so how can they say after the event that we were going against the rules?”

Runners can check their own individual England Athletics affiliation staus here.

The revised top six team in the men’s 6 Stage Road Relay Championship is below.

1st. Lincoln Wellington AC
2nd. Liverpool Harriers
3rd. Morpeth Harriers
4th. Derby AC
5th. Tyne Bridge Harriers
6th. Preston Harriers

The full updated results can be found here.

Below you can read the full statement from the Northern Athletics.

Northern Athletics statement
On Saturday a number of clubs ran athletes who were ineligible in that they had failed to pay their England Athletics affiliation for 2017/18 on or prior to the race date.

UKA Rules that apply:
RULE 21 S 1 UKA SUPPLEMENT – ELIGIBILITY TO COMPETE (PREVIOUSLY UKA RULE 1) Eligible Athletes.
(i) All competitions under the rules of UKA and Domestic Competitions held under IAAF Rules are confined to eligible athletes as defined by these rules. All athletes in Age Groups covered by these Rules (Age Group Under 13 upwards) must be registered with their National Association and comply with their terms and conditions including payment.

(ii) Should the Competitor not be registered they will be liable to disqualification and in such a case the competition shall be decided as if the ineligible competitor had not taken part.

Athletes who are already registered with EA in the previous competition year have 3 months (up to 30th June in each year) to pay their affiliation, however, track and field leagues and other competition providers can tighten the rules.

The below sub section is to aid clubs in track and field to register NEW athletes and is not for existing athletes.

Rule 21 S1 (iv) To aid the registration process:
(a) Athletes will have the provision of one week’s grace to enable clubs to register their athletes retrospectively beyond the athletes’ participation in a competition in which they have taken.”

The Northern Athletics condition of entry to the road relays was that:
Clubs that run ineligible or unregistered runners will be disqualified and may have their entry refused for the 2018 event.

Also relevant is :
RULE 23 S 1 UKA SUPPLEMENT – INELIGIBILITY TO COMPETE (PREVIOUSLY UKA RULE 1)
The following are ineligible to take part in Competition under UKA Rules: Any person who:
(i) is not registered with their National Association and conformed with their requirements as set out in Rule 21 S1(1) above.

As a consequence of breaches of the above rule those athletes disqualified for failure to register their athletes they will remain disqualified.