News & Updates

The Athletics New Zealand Cross Country Challenge was one of several events to be successfully held amid the Covid-19 pandemic (Photo: Adam Binns) 

With Athletics New Zealand nominated for the Member Federation Award at the prestigious World Athletics Awards on 5 December, we reflect on an unprecedented year in which the athletics community has had to face a raft of unique challenges.

Following the completion of the successful 2020 Jennian Homes Track and Field Championships in Christchurch last March, it is doubtful whether anyone who attended the three-day event could have possibly predicted how the year would then unravel.

Yet, with the grip of the global pandemic rapidly tightening, the world was becoming a rapidly-changing place.

Within days of Athletics NZ hosting the New Zealand 10,000m Championships at Mt Smart Stadium on 21 March, the country went into a level four lockdown and the world was forced to quickly adapt.

“We went very quickly from enjoying our successful Track and Field Championships at Ngā Puna Wai to just over two weeks later going into lockdown,” Athletics NZ CEO Peter Pfitzinger recalls.

“We saw an amazing turnaround in March.”

Coping with a fixture calendar which would see a wholesale list of cancellations and postponements was extremely challenging.

However, as Pfitzinger insists, the first part of the journey into a world gripped by the global pandemic was about “rapid learning”.

“We had to quickly learn from the Government, Sport NZ and HPSNZ about hygiene, contact tracing, limiting numbers, social distancing etc and what these new requirements were,” he explains.

“Our job was then to communicate with the clubs, understand what difficulties they were facing and provide the best and most accurate information we could to help them with their decision making.

“We needed to understand their environment and what their concerns and issues were.”

Athletics NZ seized the opportunity to quickly set up regular video conference calls with the 11 centres. Communication was key although, as Pfitzinger stresses, this was far from a one-way street.

Everyone learned from one another with Pfitzinger citing the excellent health and safety work carried out by Canterbury Athletics General Manager Ian Thomas as a prime example.

“Canterbury was particularly good at putting together the health and safety plans for events at the various alert levels,” Pfitzinger says.

“Ian shared that with us and Otago ahead of the scheduled New Zealand Cross Country Championships (later re-named Athletics NZ Cross Country Challenge), which was very helpful.”

In the early stages of the lockdown, Athletics NZ took the view that it was important to maintain  consistent engagement with their community.

With everyone initially at alert level four and limited to exercising within a small radius, it ruled out the possibility of any orthodox competition.

However, thinking with great agility and thanks to the work of Athletics NZ Community Manager Hamish Meacheam and TempoFit founder Hayden Shearman, the Athletics NZ Virtual Series was launched in which athletes would run solo over a range of distances, logging a time with the help of GPS technology.

“It was a fun series that worked well and it is something we will look to do again in the future,” Pfitzinger says. “We were pleased to be able to turn it around quickly and it was important for the New Zealand community because it gave them a sense of normalcy, it empowered people and gave them a sense of control.”

The pandemic also presented its challenges for the Athletics NZ high performance team.

Many high performance athletes had been planning to fly to Australia to compete in a Brisbane meet when it was cancelled, along with the remainder of the Australian track and field season.

With New Zealand and much of the world going into lockdown, the high performance team had to act as a support to the country’s leading athletes facing a unique scenario.

“Our immediate focus was on how we could keep our athletes training from home,” explains Athletics NZ High Performance Coach Manager Scott Newman.

“The athletes and their individual coaches played the most important part in ensuring that this happened but we played a facilitating role in terms of borrowing equipment from HPSNZ facilities, private gyms or, in some cases, even buying equipment. We didn’t get it right for everyone but most athletes were pretty well set up and had access to training equipment during lockdown.”

As the pandemic further tightened its grip on the planet, the decision was taken to postpone the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics until 2021. Naturally, this was gut-wrenching news for many athletes and the decimated international calendar led to the unusual situation of almost all of New Zealand’s leading athletes being based at home for the winter rather than competing overseas.

While this scenario presented the chance for some athletes to work on specific areas of fitness, it was also important to keep the athletes motivated and primed. As a response to this need, Athletics NZ’s high performance team organised a training hub for many of New Zealand’s top athletes in Hawke’s Bay in June and July.

“We had to try and change the training environment, so we decided to create a hothouse of training in the Hawke’s Bay,” Newman says.

“It took everyone out of their day routine and it was incredibly successful. I’d say it even exceeded our expectations.”

In September, a second hub was organised in Hastings but this time it would serve the dual purpose of filling a competitive gap as three meets were organised in a week as part of the innovative Spring Series.

Primarily giving the opportunity for the likes of 2019 world bronze medallist Tom Walsh and two-time Olympic shot champion Dame Valerie Adams to compete, the series was highlighted by a stunning breakthrough performance by Lauren Bruce, who set an Oceania hammer record.

To further maintain fitness, motivation and morale during the winter, a training camp was also organised for the endurance athletes in Rotorua.

“The strength of our HP programme is the people orientation of our staff – Scott Goodman, Scott Newman, Kat Austin and others,” Pfitzinger says.

“Each athlete is treated as an individual and the athlete-coach as a team and each gets treated with respect, where their needs and priorities are met. This personalised approach is important because people feel they need a lot of assurance and empathy, which was especially true during a global pandemic.”

As the alert levels eased and regular competition returned, the priority became organising a winter racing calendar with the right safety precautions – always underscored with the fundamental principle of health and wellbeing coming first.

Athletics NZ’s marquee event of the winter, the New Zealand Cross Country Championships in Dunedin, was rescheduled because of Covid from an early-August date to later that month.

However, the possibilities surrounding the staging of the event were further complicated following the Auckland Covid outbreak.

“The restrictions at the time of the event meant Aucklanders could not travel and with the help of the centres we decided the best approach would be to go ahead with the competition but re-name it the New Zealand Cross Country Challenge, rather than a fully-fledged New Zealand Championship event.”

Pfitzinger admits the decision was far from black and white but was keen for the rest of the country to experience some competition while also being fair to the non-travelling Aucklanders.

“It was one of quite a few decisions we had to make this year with the best information available, which we tried to communicate as best we could.”

With wider New Zealand (outside of Auckland) at alert level two, the event also required some strict protocols to limit the numbers to no more than 100 people being on site at a time.

So for the event to proceed safely was a moment of enormous personal pride for Athletics NZ Events Manager Courtney MacDonald.

“I was at home because as an Aucklander I couldn’t travel to the event,” she explains.

“I watched the livestream and knowing all the hard work the volunteers in Otago put in to make the event happen made me very proud.”

The 2020 Rotorua Marathon was one of the world’s first mass participation races to be held since the outbreak of the pandemic (Photo: Alisha Lovrich)

As event organisers of the Rotorua Marathon, Athletics NZ also needed to make some big calls on how the iconic race was to proceed.

Back in the early stages of lockdown, the decision was made to postpone the event – originally scheduled for early May – to a new date in late- September.

However, the picture of the race was muddied by the fact Auckland was at alert level two by the time of the rescheduled race.

Another layer of complication was the government’s decision two weeks out from the race to wait another week before determining precise alert levels across New Zealand – a move which gave MacDonald a few sleepless nights.

“Preparing for the unknown and knowing that things could change at the drop of a hat was hard,” she explains.

“Two weeks out from the race, we were hanging out for the government announcement, only to be then told the decision would be extended by another week, which was very frustrating.

“We planned for many different scenarios dependent on alert levels but the uncertainty made it tough.”

After the final alert levels were confirmed on the Monday before race day, the government guidelines – which made it clear that Aucklanders were required to take their gathering restrictions with them when travelling – a decision was made to proceed with the race but without participants from New Zealand’s most populous city.

“It would have been very hard to have kept participants within isolated groups of 100 people or less, so we took the decision that Aucklanders couldn’t race,” Pfitzinger says.

“It was a tough call and we received some negative feedback and the media became very interested in the story. But we felt we needed to abide by the government guidelines.”

Despite the lack of an Auckland presence, the 56^th Rotorua Marathon went ahead with more than 2,000 entrants taking to the start line in one of the world’s first mass participation races since the outbreak of the global pandemic. 

“I was really stoked we could make it happen,” MacDonald says.

“It is always hard work to put together an event on that scale but when you add in a pandemic you have to work even harder. But on the day when you saw all the participants enjoying the experience, it made everything worthwhile.”

Athletics NZ as an organisation may have adapted with great agility to the global pandemic but Pfitzinger also acknowledges the superb role played by the centres, clubs and volunteers up and down the country.

He offers particular praise to the local organising committee for the Athletics New Zealand Cross Country Challenge in Otago and the exemplary job done by Feilding Moa Harriers to ensure the New Zealand Road Relay Championships went ahead in October.

The New Zealand Road Relay Championships were able to go ahead as planned (Photo: Ethan Gillespie) 

“The year has reinforced how important two-way communication is, so we need to learn from what is happening in the centres and clubs and it is vitally important we continue to assist them,” he says.

“While every decision may not have been perfect, we were genuine in our approach and, in general, things have gone well in very challenging circumstances in 2020.

“I’m proud of all the staff within Athletics NZ who adapted very quickly to Covid. But I believe the co-operation and the work that was conducted at the centre and club level was also vitally important. There was a real sense of everybody working together to do the best job they could for the sport.”

Athletics NZ is one of six nominees for the Member Federation Award in the 2020 World Athletics Awards. The others are Athletics Kenya, Nicaraguan Athletics Federation, Palestine Athletic Federation, Peruvian Athletics Federation and Polish Athletics Association.

The winner will be announced at the 2020 World Athletics Awards, to be held virtually on Saturday 5 December and streamed live on the World Athletics YouTube channel, its Facebook page and via Twitter.