Participating in athletics are 630 athletes from the education and training divisions of districts and Son La city, high schools, continuing education centres, and boarding primary, secondary and high schools for ethnic minority students. In particular, the primary school group sees the competition of 105 male and female athletes in the 60m and 500m run categories, standing long jump, and three coordination events. The secondary school group have 254 male and female athletes competing in the 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, and 1,500m run categories, long jump and high jump, while the high school group with 271 male and female athletes compete in the same events as the secondary school one, plus the weightlifting event of the 5kg weight category.

The competitions of this sport follow a direct timing format to make rankings for each individual competition, as regulated by the current athletics rules.