News & Updates

The 2022 New Zealand Senior Marathon Championships will take place as an exciting standalone event known as Reboot: The Athletes Marathon on a fast, flat course in rural Canterbury on Sunday 15 May, presenting an enticing opportunity for our leading domestic marathon runners to race in a top-quality competition and chase quick times.

The annual championship was originally scheduled to take place in conjunction with the Christchurch Marathon on 10 April, however, following the cancellation of the Christchurch Marathon, Athletics NZ has collaborated with both Athletics Canterbury and the support of several others to offer the event under the current red traffic light setting.

The race, which starts at 7.30am, will take place just south of Christchurch with runners completing one 6km lap followed by three 12km laps out and back along Old Tai Tapu Road starting and finishing outside the Tai Tapu Domain. Athletics Canterbury is in the process of certifying the course.

The road has little camber and is protected from the wind with large sections of the course flanked by tall trees.

Athletics NZ Competitions Manager Jason Cameron said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for our marathoners to utilise those months of hard and disciplined training over summer for a truly unique race opportunity. I’m sure there will be a lot of interest in the performances achieved on the day.”

Restricted to a maximum of 100 athletes, all interested athletes will be required to complete an entry application. Athletes must be capable of finishing within four hours as the temporary traffic management plan is in place until 11.30am on the day.

A panel comprising representatives from Athletics Canterbury, the LOC and Athletics NZ will evaluate all applications and make decisions on the allocation of places based on a set of mutually agreed qualifying criteria (see more below). All successful entrants will be confirmed by Monday 19 April at the latest to enable runners from other parts of New Zealand to make travel and accommodation arrangements. A waitlist in the event of potential withdrawals will also be operated.

Priority will be given to senior Athletics NZ athletes who have registered for the 2022/2023 season (commencing 1 April 2022) in the first instance who have run faster than the below times recorded at an official event from 2020-22. If the B priority times are necessary to bolster the field, Canterbury registered athletes will be given priority. An even distribution of men and women will be made unless an insufficient number of one gender group apply.

Priority qualification criteria

Men

A priority time (or faster)

Marathon: 2:48. Half Marathon: 1:20

B priority times (or faster)

Marathon: 3:30 Half Marathon: 1:41

Women

A priority times

Marathon: 3:20 Half Marathon 1:36 (or faster)

B priority times (or faster)

Marathon: 4:00 Half Marathon 1:56.

Both the men’s and women’s races offer a prize pool of $1500 each with $600 awarded to the first place finisher down to $200 for fourth.

In a further effort to attract a quality field of depth, Athletics NZ intends to run an Athlete Support Programme offering a maximum of ten athletes (five male and five female) funding assistance for athletes to help cover travel and accommodation costs and support with free entry.

For the men’s Athlete Support Programme athletes under consideration will have had to have previously posted a sub-2:25 marathon or placed in the top three men at Auckland, Rotorua, Wellington, Hawkes Bay, Southland, Queenstown, Christchurch, or Dunedin Marathons between 2020 and 2022.

For the women’s Athlete Support programme athletes under consideration will have previously run sub-2:50 marathon or placed in the top three women at Auckland, Rotorua, Wellington, Hawkes Bay, Southland, Queenstown, Christchurch, or Dunedin Marathons between 2020 and 2022.

Athletes wishing to be considered should email details and credentials to jason@athletics.org.nz by 9 April 2022 latest.

The entry fee is $100 per athlete including GST. Athletics Community Runner entries $100 plus Athletics Canterbury $25 fee.

*The entry portal via the Athletics Canterbury website is here and will be open until Friday 8 April or when the event had reached capacity (whichever comes first).

For more information on the event email Event Director John Gamblin at johngam@xtra.co.nz