News & Updates

Attention all throwers!

An exciting nationwide Virtual Throws competition will take place on the weekend of 4-5 Dec.

The brainchild of Athletics NZ Para Lead Coach Raylene Bates, the innovative event will provide a much-needed competitive opportunity for the country’s throwers.

The competition is open to U18, U20 and senior grade athletes and U17, U20 and senior grade Para athletes.

“Dunedin was scheduled to stage an all event competition between Canterbury and the rest of the South Island on 4-5 December but because of Covid restrictions we couldn’t host the meet because we would have expected over 100 people,” explains Raylene. “That was disappointing but following the announcement recently that restrictions were lifted in Auckland and Waikato to allow for groups of up to 25 to gather, I had the idea of the virtual event to include the whole of New Zealand for the throws group.

“Given the relatively short notice for groups and officials to be sorted for competitions to be held, I’ve given athletes the whole weekend to register marks. Besides the competitive opportunity, I hope the event will help provide some motivation as well as some fun too.”

Raylene has already emailed details of the competition to many of New Zealand’s leading throws coaches and she has been impressed by the level of interest in the virtual throws competition.

Competing athletes will also be able to use the event as an opportunity to register marks for the Oceania Virtual Championships, which runs until December 20.

For the New Zealand competition all marks should be sent to raylene@athletics.org.nz by 6pm on Sunday 5 December. All competitions should be organised within local Covid guidelines.