The Spanish Athletics Championships (Spanish: Campeonato de España de atletismo) is an annual outdoor track and field competition organised by the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation (RFEA), which serves as the Spanish national championship for the sport. It is typically held as a two-day event in the Spanish summer around late June to early August. The venue of the championships is decided on an annual basis.
The competition was first held in 1917 as a men's only competition. A separate women's began in 1931 but, following the onset of the Spanish Civil War, this was cancelled after 1935 and it was not until 1963 that women events were added alongside the men's programme.[1] This made Spain the last large European country to provide a national championship for women in the sport and female participation in sport in general in Spain was low due to a lack of physical education, facilities and funding for women's sport. This stemmed from the policy of National Catholicism, which saw women's place as caregivers and physical feats by them as a challenge to morality.[2][3][4]
On the current programme a total of 38 individual Spanish Championship athletics events are contested, divided evenly between men and women. For each of the sexes, there are six track running events, three obstacle events, four jumps, four throws, and two relays.
A men's barra vasca competition was held up to 1963 – the event being a variation of the javelin throw,[1] but the spear was thrown by a technique of spinning while holding it at the hip. This was banned to preserve public safety, as a result of errant throws.[5]
In spite of the prevention of women for competing at the national championships for such a long period, the women's programme subsequently expanded in line with international developments. The first addition was a women's pentathlon in 1965 (later being replaced by the heptathlon in 1981). A women's 1500 m was added in 1969, a 3000 metres in 1974 (held until 1994), a 5000 m in 1982, then a 10,000 m in 1984. The women's 80 metres hurdles was extended to the 100 m distance in 1969 and the 400 m hurdles emerged in 1977. A women's 5000 m track walk was first featured in 1982 and extended to the full 10,000 m distance in 1990. The field events programme expanded in the 1990s, with the addition of the triple jump in 1990, pole vault in 1994, and hammer throw in 1995. Women finally achieved parity with men in the track and field programme with the addition of the steeplechase in 2001.[1]
