National records tumbled at the New Zealand Masters Athletics at Tauranga Domain at the weekend.
World champion Sally Gibbs of Katikati broke the 1500m record in the W50 age group with a time of 4m 45.94s, while conditions were ideal for sprinting.
The national event was being held in Tauranga for the first time since 2009, with 201 athletes competing in track and field events over three days. In all there were 887 event entries.
"We got twice the number of entries for the field events as last year's national championships in Invercargill," Waikato/Bay of Plenty Masters Athletics president Murray Clarkson said.
At least 16 new national marks were set over the weekend - with more possible once the full results have been collated - including five in 60 sprint events.
Clarkson, the event's meeting director, said the event had been a success.
"There was some good competition. The athletes are all competing - some against themselves to beat previous times, others against each other," he said. After hosting the national Masters track and field event in 2009, Tauranga Domain was also the venue for the Oceania Masters Athletics Championships in 2012.
"This is the second national championships at the track - it's helpful that the track is available for these competitions."
Results and times are collated using the Sportscore computer program.
"It enables us to have an age percentage that is indicative of actual performance against world records."
The program calculated factored times.
"We had quite a few that were in the 90 per cent range. The standard of Masters running is up high in the world standard," Clarkson said.
As well as being the "go-to" person for the meeting, Clarkson also competed in the 400, 800 and 1500m races and said that "under the circumstances of the pressure of office" he was happy with his performances.
Waikato provided the highest number of competitors with 49, there were 43 from Auckland, 25 from Canterbury and 24 from Wellington.
The next Masters event in Tauranga will be the Oceania throwing pentathlon championships in September.