Heats and Lanes Sheets

Blank heat sheets, marshal master sheets, an overall master sheet and result slips for a sports day. Print as many as you need. There is also a browser tool on the website that fills these in from your own list — the paperwork it prints is identical to these templates.

What is in this pack

Page 2 Heat sheet, 6 lanes — the standard sheet · Page 3 Heat sheet, 8 lanes · Page 4 Heat sheet, 4 lanes, large print · Page 5 Stations sheet, for field events · Page 6 Marshal's master sheet · Page 7 Overall master sheet (landscape) · Page 8 Result slips, blank · Page 9 Checklist for the person producing the paperwork

How the sheets work together

Heat sheet — one per heat. The marshal carries it, lines up the lanes from it, and writes the places on it. This is the sheet that does the work.
Marshal's master sheet — one per event. Every heat for that event on one page, so the marshal can see the whole event and knows how many heats are left.
Overall master sheet — one per sports day. Every event and every heat, with tick boxes for "run" and "result collected". The event lead carries this one.
Result slips — six to a page, cut up. The marshal fills one in at the end of a heat and a runner carries it to the scorer. This is the single most effective thing you can do to make the results come out on time.

Filling them in by hand

Write the lane numbers in before the names. It stops you allocating eleven people to six lanes.
Leave the spare rows blank — they are for the participant who turns up at the start line without having been entered, which happens at every sports day.
Write the draw reference in the box at the top (a date, a seed number, or just "v2") so that when two versions of a sheet are in circulation you can tell which is current. The browser tool prints a reference for exactly this purpose.
Pencil for the names, pen for the places. Names change; places do not.

Splitting participants into heats, by hand

Heats needed = participants ÷ lanes, rounded up.
Deal them round like a pack of cards — one into heat 1, one into heat 2, and so on — rather than taking the first six names, then the next six. Dealing round stops the whole of one class, or one friendship group, ending up in the same heat.
Never leave a final heat with one person in it. If the arithmetic gives you 6, 6, 6, 6, 1, make it 6, 6, 6, 4, 3 instead. Running on your own in front of the whole setting is nobody's idea of a good sports day.
If you use houses or teams, spread them across the lanes rather than putting a whole house in one heat, so every heat scores for several houses.

Printing

A4 portrait, black and white. Nothing here needs colour.
Print one spare set. Sheets blow away, get rained on and get sat on.
A bulldog clip or an elastic band round the clipboard is worth more than any other piece of equipment on a windy field.

Swap-in by phase

Early years: Use the 4-lane large print sheet on page 4. Heats of three or four, no timing column, first names only, written large. Expect to re-draw on the day as children decide not to run — keep a pencil.
Primary: As printed; six lanes is the common case. First name plus initial is usually enough to identify a child and fits the box better than a full name.
Secondary: Add the tutor group or house to the House column. If you are running heats and then finals, use Time / notes for the heat time — that is what decides who qualifies — and ring the qualifying times as you go.
College and university: Entries are usually by team or course group, so House / team becomes the team or course name. Many events will be a single heat run as a final: cross out "Heat ___ of ___" and write "Final".

Nothing in this resource is health and safety advice. Supervision, the siting of lanes and throwing areas, and first-aid cover are governed by your own setting's policies adapt to your setting's own policy.

{{SITE_NAME}}Heats and Lanes SheetsPage 1 of 9

Heat sheet — 6 lanes

The standard sheet. Print one per heat, plus a spare set.

Heat sheetDraw ref: ________________

Event

Distance

Phase / year group

Date

HEAT of

Marshal

Lane	Name	House / team	Place	Time / notes
1
2
3
4
5
6
spare
spare

Everyone took part Result slip sent to scorer Signed

Marshal's reminder — the order that keeps you to time

1. Call the heat and get the lanes filled while the previous heat clears. 2. Check the names against the sheet, not the other way round. 3. Run it. 4. Write the places immediately, before you do anything else. 5. Tick "everyone took part" if your scheme gives a participation point. 6. Hand the result slip to the runner. 7. Call the next heat.

{{SITE_NAME}}Heat sheet — 6 lanesPage 2 of 9

Heat sheet — 8 lanes

For a wider field or a marked track.

Heat sheetDraw ref: ________________

Event

Distance

Phase / year group

Date

HEAT of

Marshal

Lane	Name	House / team	Place	Time / notes
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
spare
spare

Everyone took part Result slip sent to scorer Signed

{{SITE_NAME}}Heat sheet — 8 lanesPage 3 of 9

Heat sheet — 4 lanes, large print

For early years, and for anyone who needs bigger text. Three spare rows. No timing column — the youngest participants are not timed.

Heat sheetDraw ref: ________________

Event

Date

HEAT of

Grown-up with this group

Lane	Name	House / team	Took part
1			☐
2			☐
3			☐
4			☐
spare			☐
spare			☐
spare			☐

Everyone took part Signed

For the youngest groups

There is no Place column on this sheet on purpose. If your setting does record places for early years, write them in the Took part column. An adult at both ends of the run, and children running towards a familiar adult rather than towards a line, matters more than anything on this sheet.

{{SITE_NAME}}Heat sheet — 4 lanes, large printPage 4 of 9

Stations sheet — field events

For a throwing or jumping event where participants take attempts rather than racing. Three attempts, best recorded.

Stations sheetDraw ref: ________________

Event

Measured in

Phase / year group

Date

STATION of

Marshal

No.	Name	House / team	Attempt 1	Attempt 2	Attempt 3	Best
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
spare
spare

Everyone took part Result slip sent to scorer Signed

Two sets of bean bags

At a throwing station, the bottleneck is not the throwing — it is collecting the bean bags back. Use two sets, so one is being collected while the other is thrown, and the station runs at roughly twice the speed. Site the station so nothing can be thrown towards people and so the collection path does not cross a running lane adapt to your setting's own policy.

{{SITE_NAME}}Stations sheetPage 5 of 9

Marshal's master sheet

One per event. Four heats of six per page; print as many pages as you have heats. The marshal can see the whole event at a glance and knows how many heats are left.

Marshal's master sheetDraw ref: ________________

Event

Distance

Phase / year group

Marshal

Heats in this event

Heat	Lane	Name	House / team	Place	Time
1	1
	2
	3
	4
	5
	6
2	1
	2
	3
	4
	5
	6
3	1
	2
	3
	4
	5
	6
4	1
	2
	3
	4
	5
	6

Page ______ of ______ for this event All heats run All results sent to scorer

{{SITE_NAME}}Marshal's master sheetPage 6 of 9

Overall master sheet — sports day

One per sports day, two copies — one for the event lead, one for the scorer. This is the sheet that answers "where are we up to?"

Overall master sheetSetting ____________________________ Date ______________ Draw ref: ______________

#	Run	Results in
1	☐	☐
2	☐	☐
3	☐	☐
4	☐	☐
5	☐	☐
6	☐	☐
7	☐	☐
8	☐	☐
9	☐	☐
10	☐	☐
11	☐	☐
12	☐	☐
13	☐	☐
14	☐	☐

Running late? Events we will cut, in this order: 1 2 3

Decide this before the day, while you are calm, and the decision at 11.40 becomes easy.

{{SITE_NAME}}Overall master sheetPage 7 of 9

Result slips

Six to a page. Cut along the dashed lines. Print 50% more than you think you need. The everyone took part box is how a participation point reaches the scorer — see resource 03.

Result slip Event Heat of

1stNameHouse / team

2ndNameHouse / team

3rdNameHouse / team