News & Updates

Following continued Covid-related restrictions in several regions it has been decided to amend the status of the New Zealand 10,000m Championships in Wellington on Saturday 13 November.

The event will now be known as the New Zealand 10,000m Challenge to be staged as part of The Agency Group 10,000m Festival at Newtown Stadium.

The name change remains consistent with Athletics New Zealand’s decision to amend the title of the 2020 Athletics NZ Cross Country Championships in Dunedin to the Athletics NZ Cross Country Challenge because at that time Aucklanders could not travel because of Covid restrictions.

While disappointed the event title has been amended Athletics New Zealand Competitions Manager Jason Cameron was still looking forward to a highly competitive event in Wellington.

“While it is very disappointing the 2021 event will not proceed as a national championship event both the quantity and quality of entries received will still make for worthy competition in challenging circumstances . For several years this annual festival of distance running has served up some great performances and countless PB’s and I’m certain we’ll see more of the same this year.”

The 2021 festival has attracted 119 entries in total with event organiser Stephen Day adding: “It is disappointing is to lose athletes from Auckland, Waikato and other regions. We love hosting athletes from out of town.

“We are, however, really pleased with the entry numbers and are confident we can still run a top-quality event.”