News

07/07/2026 00:00, In Blog /

Action in Welsh Schools’ track & field competitions comes thick and fast at this time in the summer term.  Last weekend, it was the WSAA Nationals in Aberdare.  On Wednesday of this week, July 8^th, it is the turn of school teams to make the most of their opportunity at the biggest grass roots competition for secondary schools in Wales, the NASUWT Cymru Cup & Plate Finals, which return once more to Brecon’s Penlan Arena.

The Cup competition has been organised each year since 1988 while the Plate Final was added in 2007 – so this will be the thirty seventh time that the Cup competition has been staged. 

The age groups are U14 (School years 7 & 8) and U16 (years 9 & 10).

Pupils are limited to a maximum of two individual events, plus a relay, and, if they are entered for two events, one must be a track event and the other a field event. 

In the field and hurdles events, the competitions are held in line with the new UKA age groups’ implements or hurdles distance and spacings.

A total of 32 schools have declared teams from Cup Finals organised by the eight district associations – Afan Nedd Tawe, Cardiff & the Vale, Dyfed, Eryri, Glamorgan Valleys, North East Wales, Powys, and South East Wales -  to field up to sixty four teams at Wednesday’s Finals, which start at 1pm, and are due to finish around 5:30 pm. School closures due to the high temperatures have meant delays to team submissions and, at the time of writing, some are still to be confirmed.  

In the Cup competitions, pupils will wear single digit numbers, from 1 to 8.  In the Plate competitions, pupils will wear double digit numbers, from 11 to 88.

In track events, except the 1500 metres, the Cup Final heat will be held before the Plate Final heat.  In the 1500 events, all sixteen athletes will run together.

Schools Qualified to Compete

PARKING THIS YEAR WILL BE ON THE SITE OF THE COLLEGE INDICATED BYTHE RED ARROWS ON THE IMAGE BELOW– THIS IS TO RELIEVE PARKING PRESSURES ON THE NEIGHBOURING HIGH SCHOOL AND LEISURE CENTRE SITES.

Welsh Schools, Welsh Athletics and NASUWT Cymru wish all our participating teams the best of luck. We look forward to an exciting afternoon of athletics.