About the Website

The information in the website has come from many sources: the English Schools' Athletics Association, County Schools Athletics Associations, the British Newspaper Archive, Heritage Centres, Wikipedia, magazines, athletic clubs, statisticians and athletes.

I tried for several years to have this website information added to different websites. Because it was perceived to be a considerable amount of expensive work or the website owners had too many other more important things to deal with, nothing happened. It seemed a great pity to me that the fantastic achievements of so many schoolchildren were being ignored or, even worse, lost. Anyone who has seen the charge of 300+ plus athletes at the start of an ESAA Cross Country race or the Olympic-style march past of the athletes from 46 counties at the ESAA Track and Field Championships cannot fail to be impressed by the determination, joy and talent shown by these young athletes. These are sights to thrill any athletics fan.

In mid-February 2026 I decided it was time for me to attempt to learn enough about the "Internet" to create this website. It is therefore a little basic but hopefully quick and easy to use.

About Me

My name is John Mackie, a Scot born in Edinburgh many, many moons ago. I saw my first athletics meeting in Edinburgh in 1958, the Edinburgh Highland Games, where many of the 1958 Cardiff British Empire and Commonwealth Games athletes were competing. I tried to become a javelin thrower but was far too lazy. Since then I have watched athletics events on 4 different continents.

In 2019 I first became involved with school athletics when a friend of mine asked if I would help her (and England Athletics) with a project they were doing about the English Schools' Athletic Association (ESAA). It was to be a 'pop-up' Exhibition for the upcoming ESAA Track and Field Championships.

Suddenly COVID put paid to that event being held. England Athletics then decided to create a new website to house the information. I did a lot of research and produced several articles for it with some of them being used.

With the England Athletics online exhibition now complete, the ESAA asked if I would help them write a 'String History' for its Centenary and, with COVID now in 'full swing', I was only too delighted to get involved. While doing the research for the book I thought that I would create a Roll of Honour and an ESAA Medallists document for each of the 46 counties and see if the County School Associations were interested. I received many lovely comments about the Rolls of Honour and ESAA Medallists documents and many of the counties added them to their websites. This information forms what is now the County Section of this website.

To cut a long story short I ended up writing the book, ESAA - The First 100 Years. The ESAA had it published as a lavishly illustrated, hardback book with Sebastian Coe writing the foreword for it. Incidentally all proceeds from the book go to the ESAA who sell it through the Merchandise section of their website (www.esaa.org.uk/merchandise).