Entries Open for 2025 NZ Cross Country Champs
The black singlet is one of the most iconic sporting uniforms in the world, and from mid-2025, all New Zealand athletics teams selected to compete internationally will wear it. The first teams to don the unified look will be the 2025 World University Games team heading to Germany and athletes competing at the 2025 Oceania Half-Marathon Champs on the Gold Coast in July.
The black singlet will now be worn by all teams, whether athletes are competing at the World University Games, Oceania Championships, or age-group international events. Until now, singlet colours have varied based on competition level, with white, silver or black singlets worn. This new unified approach brings all teams together under one powerful identity.
“The black singlet has long been one of the most powerful symbols in New Zealand sport,” said Athletics NZ Chief Executive Cam Mitchell. “Whether it’s at the Olympic Games, World Championships, or Oceania-level events, this move ensures every athlete wearing the singlet feels part of the same legacy. We want all our athletes to feel equally proud to represent Aotearoa.”
One of New Zealand’s top mountain runners, Michael Sutton, will be among the first to debut the black singlet when he lines up at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Canfranc, Spain later this year. Sutton feels a fresh sense of team cohesion will come with black singlet change.
“We’re now much closer as one unified team with the goal of achieving our best and beating the best.” said Sutton. “It gives anyone that wears the singlet, regardless of event, the confidence that they are at the pinnacle in what they do and that they have the full backing to train and race better and harder than ever before.”
Sutton’s path to the black singlet has been anything but easy. After suffering a severe quad injury post-secondary school, he feared he’d never represent New Zealand again. “I can remember the surreal emotion sitting at the back of the opening ceremony of my first senior World Champs and feeling overwhelmed that I had managed to turn something I had dreamed about for close to two decades into reality.”
While excited to wear the black himself, it’s the NZ team element that resonates most: “What I’ll enjoy even more is seeing my teammates pull it on, whether it’s their first or their last time and wearing it with pride.”
The black singlet has been a constant in some of New Zealand’s most iconic athletics achievements. From Jack Lovelock’s gold medal in the 1500m at the 1936 Berlin Olympics to Sir Peter Snell’s legendary double triumph in Rome and Tokyo, it has long represented Kiwi excellence.
One of the most iconic moments in cross-country history was the NZ team’s dual podium at the 1975 World Cross-Country Championships in Rabat, Morocco. The black singlet-clad teams finished second in women’s team race with the men’s team winning a historic gold. Both teams were littered with some of the most iconic names in NZ sporting history. John Walker, Anne Audain, Rod Dixon, Lorraine Moller, and Allison Roe were just some of the notable names.
Jonathan Wyatt and Kate McIlroy proudly wore the black singlet in our own backyard, both winning the 2005 World Mountain Running Championships held on Mount Victoria in Wellington.
Major championship teams, previously known as “black singlet teams,” will continue to wear a distinct black singlet design. However, all international representatives will now compete in black, creating a consistent identity across all levels. This change does not affect current selection, team, or funding structures.