SHORT TRACK ATHLETICS: PART OF THE WAY FORWARD FOR TRACK AND FIELD

Sally Pearson and Matt Shirvington have become the first fully recognised national record holders at 60 metres – as the event became one of many to take on a new status in track and field in Australia from 1 October. 

World Athletics has made significant changes to the way in which events are categorised and recognised as from 1 November 2023. To ensure that these changes don’t disrupt a domestic season already underway, the changes came into effect in Australia on 1 October.

The previous delineation between the concepts of indoor and outdoor competitions has been removed from the world governing body’s Competition and Technical Rules.

From now on, track and field competitions will be recognised as being conducted on 400m standard oval track facilities or 200m standard oval track facilities. The latter will now be known as Short Track.

In addition, competitions held in accordance with the rules, outside traditional environments, such as street races, town square events and the like will continue to be recognised – and if they are conducted on a short track facility they will be accepted as such. Previously “short track events” could only have been acknowledged if conducted indoors.

Few indoor competitions are conducted in Australia, but the new paradigm will have implications here.

The most notable shake-up in the Rules comes in relation to the recognition of world records – and by consequence national records. From now on records will be a single list by age group – at world level simply for men, women, under 20 men and under 20 women. In Australia also for under 18 and under 16.

There will no longer be a separate set of Indoor Records. Those which are conducted under the same circumstances as outdoor such as 50m and 60m sprints and hurdles will now be completely merged with the old outdoor records. Indoor field event records that were inferior to the outdoor marks will now disappear. Those that were better had for some time been recognised as the national record.

In the 14 former indoor disciplines:

200m, 400m, 800m, 1000m, 1500m, mile, 3000m, 5000m, 3000mRW, 5000mRW, Pentathlon (W)/Heptathlon (M), 4x200m, 4x400, 4x800m

where the conduct of the event is inherently different from outdoors due to the nature of the banked track, the existing indoor records will become the new world or national short track records.

Athletics Australia has always implemented a national record for events on the world records list. As a result, the biggest immediate impact in Australia will be that 50m and 60m sprints and hurdles conducted outdoors will now be fully recognised. 

National records for 60m are recognised immediately based on the previous national indoor records – Sally McLellan now Pearson’s 7.30 set in Boston in 2009 and Matt Shirvington’s 6.52 from his fourth-place finish in the 1999 World Indoor Championships In Maebashi, Japan. 

Those at 50m will be accepted as the best valid performances achieved by 31 December 2024. 

A flurry of the inclusion of these four events at state interclub and league competitions around the nation can be expected – although the 60m has already been popular at some venues.

Longer term the recognition of short track athletics opens the door to a fundamental change in athletics facility development in Australia. Banked synthetic-covered 200m tracks could now become familiar parts of the urban landscape – fitting snugly into small spaces and also being available to a wide range of community uses.

Athletics Australia Group General Manager, Delivery & Partnerships Samantha Culbert welcomed the change: 

“For a sport with such a long and established history like athletics, it is nice to see the ongoing evolution of the competition and technical rules. This latest change provides some exciting additional opportunities for athletes to strive for, plus interesting possibilities for future athletics facility development in Australia,” Culbert said. 

The new Australia Records List as from 1 October 2023 is available HERE.

By Brian Roe, Athletics Australia
Posted:2/10/2023