As Close To The Action As It Gets
Stopwatch in hand at Mary Peters Track. Clipboard in the field at the NI & Ulster Championships. On the line as the gun goes at a Commonwealth Games final. Our officials don't watch athletics from the stands — they're standing exactly where the sport happens, and they take exactly the same journey to the top that our athletes do.
Every official in Northern Ireland started exactly where you are now — reading this page, wondering if this is for them. It is. You don't need an athletics background. You don't need experience. You need a some free time, a bit of curiosity, and a willingness to learn on the job, because that's exactly how everyone else did it too.
Whether you've been in the sport for twenty years or you're wondering where the start-line even is, this page will point you exactly where you need to go next.
Your journey, in three steps
Step 1 — Book your course. Pick a discipline — Track, Field, Endurance, Timekeeping, Photo Finish, or Starter — and book your Level 1 course. No experience needed, just curiosity. Full details are on Become an Official.
Step 2 — Get set up. Complete your Access NI check, work through your Safeguarding module, and get your licence photo uploaded to Athletics Hub. It sounds like a lot; in practice it's a few short online forms. Become an Official walks you through each one.
Step 3 — Get out on the infield. Start building real experience at real meetings, always alongside a friendly, experienced official who's been exactly where you are. Every meeting you work counts toward your next level — see Logging Your Experience for how to keep track of it.
Where do you want to go?
Athletics needs its officials as much as it needs its athletes — but that's not why people stay. They stay for the same reason the athletes do: because they love this sport, and this is their way of being part of it.
