Jonathan Maples was the first athlete to try out the resurfaced Cooks Gardens track.
Even before blossoms and leaves appear on trees and there is increased warmth from the sun, I am reminded that summer is on the way by the large number of meetings, emails and phone calls concerning the track and field season.
And 2025 has been no exception.
Much of Athletics Whanganui’s monthly committee meeting last week was spent on planning for the season ahead and a timeline agreed upon regarding the announcement of the programme for the rest of 2025.
Athletics New Zealand unveiled the domestic calendar for the 2025/2026 season earlier and with more detail than in the past at this time. Details of National Permit Meets, the Summer Circuit and national championships have been publicised.
The New Zealand Secondary Schools Athletic Association also has projects and innovations to consider at the next Zoom call and followed up with a full in-person meeting in Wellington in early October.
This time last year locally we faced uncertainty regarding how we would manage our regular programme around the proposed track resurfacing.
The resurfacing in November and early December was a success story, with final completion ahead of deadline and within budget – a modern-day miracle.
Our weekly programme during resurfacing continued, thanks to the generosity of Whanganui Collegiate School allowing us to run an innovative programme for the senior and children’s club on the grass 200-metre track behind the boarding houses.
We lost only four weeks at Cooks Gardens and returned at the start of the year to the newest surface in New Zealand and an enhanced world-class venue.
The local club programme is being prepared, with a draft to be circulated to committee members and coaches later this month and the final programme published on the website at the beginning of next month.
The likely programme will feature our standard A, B and C programmes.
The A programme features on the track 100m, 400m and 1500m. The B programme includes 200m, 800m and 3000m. The C programme features odd distances – 60m, 150m, 300m, 600m and 1000m. Each week has a throw, a jump, hurdles and relay(s).
The senior club caters for athletes from Year 7 through to masters. On the C programme night, younger children’s events are included, supporting their weekly programme held on a different day.
We hope to add a coaching element for beginners both within and before Club Night, targeting that important group of inexperienced athletes. We retain flexibility by adding events by request provided we have warning to allow published timed programmes each week in advance of Club Night.
Before Christmas, the popular Regional League continues to give good early-season competition for senior athletes and vital preparation for leading secondary school-aged athletes preparing for the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships, to be held in the first weekend in December. This year’s venue is Hastings which, following two South Island venues in 2023 and 2024, should ensure more Whanganui schools are involved. The good showing at North Island Schools from Whanganui athletes in April should provide incentive for increased Whanganui participation.
The Regional Meetings have been set for Inglewood on Saturday, November 1, Whanganui a week later (November 8) and conclude in Masterton on November 22, two weeks before the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships in Hastings on December 5-7.
The national calendar features six World Athletics National Permit Meets. This is complemented by three full World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze Meetings and two national championships. The early publication of the programme is to be commended.
The “Summer Circuit” is billed as “the pinnacle of domestic athletics in Aotearoa, bringing New Zealand’s top athletes and international contenders for a series of high-performance, fan–focused meets that define the series”. Bronze-level meets offer important points-scoring opportunities for athletes chasing world rankings.
The circuit starts in Hastings with the new Short Track Championships, held in conjunction with the Potts Classic. Cooks Gardens hosts the first of the three Bronze Meets with the Pak’nSave Cooks International Classic on January 24, which includes the New Zealand Mile Championship.
The Graeme Douglas International in Auckland on February 8 and the International Track Meeting in Christchurch on February 21 lead into the New Zealand Track and Field Championships in Auckland on March 5-8.
An exciting season lies ahead, with Cooks Gardens once again featuring. I am disappointed that the Capital Classic in Wellington, which we have worked closely with over many years, especially in attracting overseas athletes, does not have a higher status.
I look forward to reporting on exciting track and field in the fast-approaching summer.