About the CTFL

The Canadian Track and Field League's Mission, Goals and Structure

Mission and Goals

The CTFL's mission is to improve the track and field landscape within Canada for all athletes, coaches, clubs and fans. The league has two primary goals. The first is to bring more content to fans and help build the sport of track and field in Canada. Our second goal is to help athletes financially by providing them with a platform for them to use and build their own brand.

The creation of a track and field league will allow Canadians to follow the sport in a more convenient way than ever before using a team-based format. This format will help fans follow their favorite teams and athletes throughout their season and career. Within the league, every athlete's contribution is of equal importance to their team's success which will compel fans to keep up with all disciplines and genders.

League Structure

The CTFL is a league composed of four teams. Each team will have three athletes per event and gender known as "Core Athletes". Therefore there will be 60 core athlete positions available. In addition, teams will be given 10 utility spots which they can use to acquire any athlete without the majority of the league’s restrictions. Thus, a full team will be composed of 70 athletes in total. 

The Utility spots are the only positions where there does not need to be an equal distribution of men and women. Utility athletes can compete in any track and field events, including any of the events not offered in our 10 core events. Utility Athletes will compete for a separate cash prize pool compared to the core athletes. Utility athletes do not need to compete at any of the official CTFL event including the championship, but they must compete in a minimum of three provincially recognized meets in their selected discipline prior to CTFL Finals on July 6th. The purpose of the Utility Athlete is to include as many athletes as possible from across Canada.

Athletes will be asked to enter a pool of potential candidates from which they will be selected using an entry draft. It is important to note that the league will not be registered as a club, allowing athletes to train with their individual coaches and compete as they would normally (excluding the pre-designated prelim and championship meet).

Currently, athletes will have the opportunity to compete for their primary event of which there will be ten, including: 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 5km, Sprint Hurdles, 400m hurdles, Shot Put and Long Jump. In the coming seasons, more events will be added and with it, the league will expand. 

The league will present five total meets, with four preliminary meets and a championship where spectators will have the opportunity to attend. All meetings will be recorded and put on YouTube for spectators.

2024 Season Schedule

The CTFL will have its prelims in Calgary, Montreal, London, Guelph and Ottawa. The tentative dates and locations are as follows:

• TBA - Calgary Spring Challenge in Calgary, hosted by UCAC
• TBA - Soirée Sélect #1 In Montreal, hosted by Saint-Laurent Select
• TBA - Bob Vigars - In London Ontario, hosted by the London Western Track and Field Club
• TBA - Guelph Inferno - In Guelph, hosted by Royal City Athletics
• TBA - Ottawa Twilight Meet #9, Ontario hosted by the Ottawa Lions
• July 6th - CTFL Championship - in Ottawa

Points System

The CTFL is introduced a new point system for the 2023 season in order to have an equal distribution of points across disciplines and gender. Throughout the season, athletes will accumulate points based off their performance. For core athletes, each of their three counted meets will respectively get them between one to 25 points compared to how they match up against their competitors. Every core athlete will have their "free mark" which can be achieved anywhere in the world, their prelim mark and their championship mark (refer to example below). All athletes will have three marks (or times) counted towards their cumulative individual points as well as their teams’ overall points. Core athletes will be required to compete at a minimum of 1 of the 5 preliminary meets and the championship to be eligible to win the cash prizes at the end of the season. The "free mark" that will be counted for points can either be done at the designated official CTFL prelim meets or any other sanctioned meet as per their provincial athletics organization (these are considered free meets and can be found anywhere in the world as long as they are recognized as official meets). As for utility athletes, their best three meet results will be counted prior to the July 6th championship. As utility athletes compete against one another regardless of discipline or gender, their points will be based off of the IAAF scoring tables and then will be converted into the CTFL scoring system which will have the first overall athlete finishing with 75 points and the last place athlete (40th) finishing with 6 points. This is different from the core athletes who receive points for every mark (meet) individually, utility athletes will receive points for their season's performance (See below).

To incentivize athletes to attend more than one of the five designated prelim meets, all CTFL designated meets will carry an additional bonus point. Meaning that for every additional meet a core athlete attends, they will add a single point to their season's total. This will be indicated using a "+" next to their prelim marks including the number of meets they attended above the required amount. Tie breakers will be decided based on the athletes best mark achieved at a CTFL meet.

Example of Core Athlete Points

Core athletes will score points by comparing their marks against their competitors in the same category (free mark, prelim mark and championship mark). The category points are as follows: 1st (25 points), 2nd (20 points), 3rd (16 points), 4th (13), 5th (10), 6th (8), 7th (6), 8th (5), 9th (4), 10th (3), 11th (2) and 12th (1 point).

Using an example with last years men's 400mH and a few fill in athletes, these would be the results:

Rank	Athlete Name	Team	Free Mark	Prelim Mark	Champs Mark	Total points
1.	Roxroy Cato		51.16  (1st = 25)	51.51  (1st = 25 + 1)	50.82 (25)	76
2.	Joshua Adhémar		52.25  (3rd = 16)	52.51 (2nd = 20 +1)	52.90 (2nd =20)	57
3.	Saj Alhaddad		51.92 (2nd = 20)	53.03  (3rd = 16)	52.91 (3rd = 16)	52
4.	Luca Nicoletti		53.94 (5th = 10)	55.56 (7th = 6)	54.19 (4th = 13)	29
5.	Dylen Belanger		54.63 (6th = 8)	55.81 (7th = 6)	54.87 (5th = 10)	24
6.	Kevin Adeli		54.99 (7th = 6)	55.49 (5th = 10)	55.22 (6th = 8)	24
7.	Leewinchel Jean		54.75 (6th = 8)	55.05 (4th = 13)	Injured	21
8.	Steven T		55.20 (8th = 5)	55.94 (8th = 5)	57.43 (8th = 5)	15
9.	Mike P		55.54 (9th = 4)	55.97 (9th = 4)	57.42 (7th = 6)	14
10.	Phil Y		55.89 (10th = 3)	57.30 (11th = 2)	57.53 (9th = 4)	9
11.	Joe X		57.56 (12th = 1)	58.05 (12 = 1)	58.02 (10th = 3)	5
12.	Marcus Nandlal		55.90 (11th = 2)	Injured N/A	Injured N/A	2

The example above would then be entered into the CTFL's team standings page. In this example, you can see the added points for an additional meet attended by Roxroy Cato and Joshua Adhémar. In addition, the tie break system was used for the tie between 11th and 12th. As Marcus Nandlal was injured and did not compete at a CTFL meet, the tie breaker would go to Joe X as they would have the fastest CTFL meet time.

This bonus system is to make sure that athletes who participate at more CTFL prelim events than required will benefit as this will help grow the league. At the end of the season, athletes that finish within the top 3 in their event will have earned a cash prize. There will also be a $1,000 dollar prize for the winning team distributed between all core athletes equally. 

Example of Utility Athlete Points

The utility athlete positions are season based but will fluctuate throughout the CTFL season. Each athlete will receive three marks that are free and can be achieved anywhere in the world if they are sanctioned. If a utility athlete decides to compete at a CTFL prelim meet, they will receive an additional point towards their score for every CTFL meet they compete at. A tie breaker if necessary, will be implemented with the athlete with the highest mark based on the IAAF scoring table winning the tie breaker. 

Scoring itself will begin at 75 points for the top athlete who scores the most IAAF points using their 3 marks. The points will drop incrementally until the 40th athlete who will receive a single point for the season. The increments are as follows:

Below is an example of how the rankings will be completed and how the associated points will be tallied for utility athletes:

Rank	Athlete Name	Team	Mark 1	Mark 2	Mark 3	IAAF Points	Total points
1.	Sarah Mitton		20.33m (1228)	19.99m (1207)	19.90m (1201)	3636	76 (75 + 1)
2.	Itsekiri Usheoritse		10.04 (1218)	10.09 (1175)	10.10 (1172)	3565	71 (70 + 1)
3.	Marco Arop		1:43.61 (1216)	1:44.39 (1192)	1:45.51 (1153)	3561	66
4.	Crystal Emmanuel		11.38 (1148)	11.45 (1103)	11.47 (1099)	3350	63 (62 + 1)
5.	Noelle Montcalm		56.54 (1125)	56.67 (1121)	57.86 (1085)	3331	60 (59 + 1)