New Zealand will move to alert level 1 - and a return to mostly normal lives - from midnight tonight. The announcement comes just two hours after health officials confirmed that the country now has no active Covid-19 cases.
New Zealand running race directors have welcomed the news that the country will move to alert level 1 tonight, meaning all restrictions on gatherings will lift from tomorrow.
After weeks of lockdown that cancelled and postponed some races and threatened the livelihood of many in the running events industry, PrimeMinister Jacinda Ardern's announcement this afternoon was very much welcomed by the community.
As Ardern spoke, race directors across the country breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Total Sport director Aaron Carter says he was sitting in his car in between buying dog food and going to the supermarket when he heard the Prime Minister's announcement on the radio.
"I actually got a bit choked up and might've almost shed a tear," he told the Herald.
"We're back in the game, unrestricted numbers means business survival, keeping our staff, and getting people back on those trails real soon," he added.
Carter made no secret of the impact that Covid-19 had on his events business and is glad the lockdown days are behind him so Total Sport can focus on putting on events again.
Lockdown also meant a few headaches and heartaches for Lactic Turkey Events director Shaun Collins, who had to rescheduled the much-anticipated Riverhead Backyard ReLaps Ultra - the last person standing event originally planned for early May but will now take place on August 15.
Collins let out an enthusiastic "bring it on!" following the announcement.
"We are stoked to have this confirmed. This is amazing as it means we can run our events as normal," he said.
"We were ready for our first event at the end of June but were going to have to use waves of starters which was going to be more work for us and not provide the full social attractions that is one of the main reasons we and participants do the events."
The race director says some things will change and explains they will have increased hygiene measures at aid stations as well as contact tracing - but, otherwise, it's back to business as usual.
In Wellington, WUU2K race organiser Gareth Thomas says he is "stoked with the news" and "very proud of how our Government has handled this situation".
Despite having had to cancel his annual WUU2K, a 42km Trail Marathon, or a 60km Ultra-Marathon around the peaks on the outskirts of the Wellington CBD, Thomas says the news means he can still go ahead with the inaugural WAI Running Festival in November
"It has definitely been a tough year all around, but this news breathes some light for us all in New Zealand. We just have to keep up the positivity and look towards a stronger, more balanced future," he added.
Down in Central Otago, Highland Events director Terry Davis also welcomed today's news.
"Great news! Pre-planned events are all go again," he said, adding that one of the events lockdown forced him to cancel may be rescheduled for Spring.
While the closed borders still have a significant impact on running races in New Zealand - with some of them heavily relying on Australian and other international entrants in the past - Davis says "luckily" all of his events for the rest of 2020 are "mostly aimed at the local market".
"Next year our first few events have traditionally had up to 30 per cent Australian participants so fingers crossed for a workable Trans-Tasman arrangement. Certainly not at the risk of bringing in Covid-19 again," he adds.
Despite the good news, Davis says he expects the effects of lockdown to be felt across the industry for quite some time to come.
As the PM announced level 1, the events industry breathed a collective sigh of relief.
According to the Northburn race director, rescheduled races for late 2020 might see the race calendar in New Zealand become a bit clogged up - and dilute the number of participants at some races.
He expects these date changes to cause a flow-on domino effect in the calendar, into 2021. "But that's just how it will be this year ... Next year hopefully everyone goes back to their new dates - but likely there will be a big shake up," he says.
