Relative Age Effect among Participants of the Under 12 Category of the Malaysian Schools Sports Council Athletics Championships 2012 Pathmanathan K. Suppiah 1 ,Dr. Mohamad Razali Abdullah 2 , Shankaralingam Ramalingam 3 , Hasnol Noordin 4 , Dr. Mohamad Nizam Nazarudin 5 . 1,2,4,5 ,School of Education & Social Development, Universiti Malaysia Sabah 3 Bukit Jalil Sports School, Kuala Lumpur. INTRODUCTION Financial constrains has and will always be a bane to sports development. To optimize the utilization of these limited resources, organizations responsible for the development of sports are forced into the identification and development of promising athletes at an early stage of the athlete’s development. The basis of selection of these young athletes, more often than not, is age group competitions. Age group competitions which set cut off dates to categorize athletes to provide a level playing field inadvertently create a situation which it tries to avoid in the first place. The consequential outcomes resulting from the disparity in age is referred to as relative age effects (RAE) (1). This effect is most evident in the pre pubertal years where children go through the phase of growth spurt (8). Thus, there is a marked difference between children born in the early part of a year (eg. January) and children being born in the later part of the same year (eg. December). RAE is not only prevalent in sports but can also be observed in academic environments (21). In a review of studies conducted to investigate causal factors that contribute towards the biasness of selecting relatively older athletes in age group competitions; it was concluded that the age-qualification dates of age group tournaments is the major contributory factor of RAE (14). Two soccer championships in Brazil and Germany noticed that a similar pattern of birth date distribution existed in these two countries despite differences in geographical location and social cultural practices (15). Evidence for RAE emerged among soccer professionals in Australia; a corresponding shift in birth dates distribution among soccer professionals in Australia 10 years after the cutoff date was changed from 1st January to 1st August (15). Maturational differences have also been attributed to the prevalence of RAE among young athletes (4). At the prepubertal stage of development, variation in the growth rate and biological maturity is considerable. Early maturer’s possess greater height and body mass; perform better in sports or events that require power, speed and endurance (12). In youth sports where the cut off dates remain unchanged over the years, relatively older athletes are able to outperform their peers due to these relatively older athletes experiencing the growth spurt earlier than the later maturers. Due to their superior performances, these athletes will be perceived as talented and consequently be selected for higher tiers in competition (18) and placed in developmental programs. This difference in chronological age when coupled with late maturation makes it challenging for a young athlete to compete (14). Being selected for higher