It is typically held as a two-day event in the Spanish summer around late June to early August.

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.

On the current programme a total of 38 individual Spanish Championship athletics events are contested, divided evenly between men and women.

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.

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.