 | |
| Sport | Track and field |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1923 |
| Ceased | 2006 |
| Country | England/United Kingdom |
The WAAA Championships was an annual track and field competition organised by the Women's Amateur Athletic Association (WAAA) in England. It was the foremost domestic athletics event for women during its lifetime.
Since 1880, the Amateur Athletic Association of England had held the AAA Championships, but it admitted men only and did not wish to include women.[1] Women's clubs and competitions were typically separate from the men's and in line with growing interest in the sport the WAAA was founded in 1922.[2] Several contests in the country were approved by the WAAA with "Championships of England" status that year, and this was subsequently replaced with an organised WAAA Championships in 1923.[3] Aside from the 1927 championships in Reading, Berkshire, the WAAA track and field event was based at various locations in London up to 1939.[4] The competition was interrupted by World War II but was re-instigated in 1945 and remained in London until a move to Birmingham in 1985.[5][3]
As women's athletics developed in the 20th century, major international men's and women's events typically were held in conjunction, with women first appearing on the Olympic athletics programme in 1928 and the European Athletics Championships being fully combined by its third edition in 1946.[6][7] The AAA and WAAA events remained divided for much longer and it was not until 1988 that the women's events were merged into an all-gender AAA Championships in 1988, though the WAAA remained the organiser of the women's events.[3] This change came during a period of reform that would see the sport fully professionalise and, in the UK, organisation move to national level.
The establishment of UK Athletics in 1999 to serve as the national governing body for professional, elite athletics ultimately started the decline of the AAA Championships. UK Athletics took over the role of both national championships and international team selection with its own British Athletics Championships from 2007 onwards.[8]
The long-distance track events, marathon, racewalking events and combined track and field events were regularly held outside of the main track and field championship competition.[3]
- ^ AAA Championships. GBR Athletics. Retrieved 2018-04-04.
- ^ About Athletics. Sheffield Hallam University. Retrieved 2018-04-04.
- ^ a b c d AAA Championships (Women). GBR Athletics. Retrieved 2018-04-04.
- ^ WAAA Championships (1923-1939). GBR Athletics. Retrieved 2018-04-04.
- ^ British Athletics Championships 1945-1959. GBR Athletics. Retrieved 2018-04-04.
- ^ Olympic Games (Women). GBR Athletics. Retrieved 2018-04-04.
- ^ European Championships (Women). GBR Athletics. Retrieved 2018-04-04.
- ^ AAA, WAAA and National Championships Medallists. National Union of Track and Field Statisticians. Retrieved 2018-04-04.