WAAA Championships
The WAAA Championships was an annual track and field competition organised by the Women's Amateur Athletic Association (WAAA) in England. It was the foremost domestic athletics event for women during its lifetime. Since 1880, the Amateur Athletic Association of England had held the AAA Championships, but it admitted men only and did not wish to include women. Women's clubs and competitions were typically separate from the men's and in line with growing interest in the sport the WAAA was founded in 1922. Several contests in the country were approved by the WAAA with "Championships of England" status that year, and this was subsequently replaced with an organised WAAA Championships in 1923. Aside from the 1927 championships in Reading, Berkshire, the WAAA track and field event was based at various locations in London up to 1939. The competition was interrupted by World War II but was re-instigated in 1945 and remained in London until a move to Birmingham in 1985. As women's athletics developed in the 20th century, major international men's and women's events typically were held in conjunction, with women first appearing on the Olympic athletics programme in 1928 and the European Athletics Championships being fully combined by its third