sports day: Girls not allowed to run 400m

[GotMyGoat]

Do you want to hear something jaw-droppingly outrageous?

School have sent out a message saying that due to health and safety concerns the sports day 400 m will become the 300 m race. Something about it being a sprint, a bit vague but ok. Fine. If you think it helps. Maybe it's connected to the hot weather?

Then, the email says that due to it being a sprint, and therefore posing a risk girls will not be allowed to run the 400m (now 300m) but boys will still be allowed.

What an awful example to set.

If girls run the 300m, do their heads fall off or something? Does anyone have any ideas why sprinting is more dangerous for girls?

I am so angry hat they think they can assume all boys are stronger/ better sprinters than all girls. I was awesome at the 400m at school and would have easily beaten most of the boys.

I'd like to send an email in reply, its going to be too late for this year but perhaps they can change their sexist attitude for next year? Any pointer of how I can sensitively call my employers sexist pigs? Many thanks!

[Takver]

So how come women run marathons? Surely if very ordinary women can run serious long distances (which they patently do all the time) fit young girls can run 400m?

I can see it would make sense to have a qualifier for everyone, and also warn anyone who feels unwell to drop out.

I was discussing this gender split with friends re. primary sports day where dd's school has 'girls races' and 'boys races' in each category, which just seems daft given that in some years that means 2 girls or 2 boys racing each other in every event. (It also means parents sitting through twice as many races ) DD is about to leave, but I think others are planning to take it up.

Its even more mad given that loads of the older children from the school do surf lifesaving where there is no gender split for anything regardless of age group, it is all mixed up to and including the adult competitions. And even though a lot of them take it pretty seriously I don't think at any age there is any noticeable gender imbalance in who wins the races either beach or sea (ie women/girls and men/boys are equally likely to come first).

[teetering13]

I don't believe this.

I don't think any school would ban girls from running a 300m race .. it wouldn't have even happened in my day years & years ago when girls were taught to sew and boys did woodwork and never the two could cross!

If this is true what school is it?

[rosy71]

I did a lot of athletics when I was younger and it was always the case that girls, and boys, under certain ages couldn't run the 400m. It is a very difficult event because it's a sprint. It's totally different from longer distances such as 800m, 1500m etc. They're middle distance and require different skills/strength/technique. There are also lots of rules about which events children are allowed to do in combination on the same day.

Having said that I'm really not sure why boys can do it at a younger age but it is nothing new.

[rosy71]

Just done a quick bit of googling and it's currently being proposed to stop boys under 15 running 400m too. Apparantly, sprinting longer sprints hinders the evelopment of speed so teenagers should focus on the shorter sprints to build up sprinting speed.

[GrimmaTheNome]

Yes - its not the girls doing 300 that's the problem, its that the boys are still doing 400.

[TalkativeJim]

OP, I would seriously take this to the press and LEA

[zippey]

Its ridiculous and I would be up in arms, I really would, if my DC was not allowed to race without a valid reason, but as a teacher in said school it wont be easy for you.

Sport has always denigrated women - women were not allowed to compete in track and field until 1928, I think concerns about the jiggling about and issues of damaged fertility.

As an aside, women should also play 5 sets in tennis, or receive a lesser amount of prize money. There is equal prize money in Wimbledon for women.

[Doinmummy]

I went to all girls school and this was the rule there. That was 35 years ago

[kickassangel]

I went to an all girls school and we did 400 yards.
And cross country.

This is complete sexist bollocks with no factual evidence just that girls are precious little flowers shit.

I would be wanting to show them all the research which shows just what a lie it is that girls can't do sport as equals and threatening them with sex discrimination.

But that is really hard if you work there. If I were a parent I would do this, maybe not as an employee.

[NoComet]

DD2 says she's been asked to run the 300m, she says this is just the distance her age group do,

Thinking back, I'm not sure we did 400 at school, just 1,2, 8 and 1500 (the only event I ever did and it wasn't even on sports day).

[AHandfulOfDust]

How many of you have actually run 400m as a young teen? I was a middle distance runner & I was drafted in to do the 400m, I was fit & young & NEARLY FUCKING DIED. It'sa hard race for any young person. I would pity the boys who had to do it, rather than insist the girls have to.

[AHandfulOfDust]

I gave great 800m & 1500m, but 400m? No thanks.

[AHandfulOfDust]

It's a .4k sprint , people.

It's not an easy thing to do.

[teetering13]

It doesn't matter how long the sprint is .. it's the fact boys can do it and girls can't ..

If it's too difficult for girls then it's too difficult for boys yet they aren't banned

Anyway, I still don't believe it ... no school would risk that amount of bad attention being thrown at it if it got out ... and funnily enough it's not got out, the OP is outraged but won't say what school it is

[Picturepuncture]

This was the rule when I was at school as well. It isn't new!

[LRDYaDumayuIThink]

I used to do 400m. I'm really unfit and was back then, too.

You start at the start, you run for a bit, and you get to the end.

You probably do not try to sprint the whole thing, what with it being sports day and not the olympics.

Posting to say it's a hard race is utterly pointless if they're still letting the boys do it!

(Sorry, I know this thread has gone in the same circle at least twice already, but ...).

I'm shocked, TBH.

teetering, this is an anonymous forum.

[teetering13]

anonymously post the name of the school then

[StealthPolarBear]

[LRDYaDumayuIThink]

Erm ... 'anonymous' means 'without a name', ie., unidentifiable.

Funnily enough, I suspect naming the school would give a teeny tiny clue.

Don't be so irresponsible.

[GrimmaTheNome]

WTF would anyone invent this? It sounds 100% plausible to me.

[TheOriginalSteamingNit]

It is totally plausible - girls never did the 400 at my school, and, on enquiry, neither do they at my girls' school now. It baffles and annoys them just as much as it does OP!

[TheOriginalSteamingNit]

(and no, I won't be naming either my or their school to 'prove' it!)

[notso]

DD did the 400m, she was the only girl in her year who entered so she had to run with the boys, she beat them all too

[RatherBeOnThePiste]

Extraordinary

I am staggered, and baffled

My poor DD had to run 400m this year! Why did no one tell me there was such a risk!!

[piprabbit]

Fair enough to change the race for everyone from 400m to 300m, but to ban girls from participating at all is dire.