Next summer we’re offering athletes and your clubs an innovative new summer track and field programme. We’re giving clubs and groups the opportunity to plan, host and promote your own unique events.
Following last season, Athletics Wellington sought feedback from members on the future of the senior track and field programme. The feedback we have received confirmed that we needed to try a different approach, to increase athlete participation and to ensure we look after our officials and volunteers.
The new summer season will be similar to the club-led model we use during the winter season, where individual clubs take responsibility for iconic events like the Dorne Cup, the Shaw Baton Relays and the Wellington Road Champs. This approach has been endorsed by the Board.
Wellington Scottish Athletics has already offered to host a monthly series of mid-week twilight track meets. These will be a mixture of sprints and middle-distance races, probably starting around 6:15pm. The evening programme will be finished by 7:30pm. Photo-timing and formal results will be provided. More details of the series will be published later.
Scottish will also continue to host and organise the Agency Group 10000m Festival and the Night of Miles.
We now invite other clubs or specific interest groups to host local track and field events that will fill out the summer programme. These could be weekend or weeknight events. They could be track or field events. Athletics Wellington will continue to support the overall season by co-ordinating track bookings, providing access to equipment, access to the remaining pool of officials, and support with event promotion and communications.
Marshall Clark will co-ordinate the offers from clubs and prepare a season programme. If you or your club would like to offer to lead and manage one or more track or field events during the season, please contact Marshall at marshallclark21@gmail.com
Athletics Wellington is excited about the opportunities the new club-led model presents, and we look forward to seeing what our athletics community can develop for this season and beyond.
