2016 Wellington Road Champs Wainuiomata Sat 20 Aug

Results

Race referee makes last minute check of course. Note the leaning finish sign. The awful camber is responsible for that

What an awful course Wainuiomata is. It is traffic free but that is all going for it, Narrow with tight turns and a camber that will cripple you. I am surprised that the Wellington Centre haven't found something better after all of these years. Dave Lonsdale has an ace race walking course at the old GM motors course in Trentham and I wonder if that could not be used. But I won't be holding my breath.

The National Road Champs is coming up in Masterton in a couple of weeks. Holding it in this provincial town defies logic but I have a fair idea about how that came about. 

Recognising that it is not any easy place to get in and out for out of town athletes, Stephen Day the President of Scottish has offered to try and organise to get  visiting runners in and out. This is the first sensible thing I have read about the champs and Stephen needs to be congratulated for understanding the problem, I understand that Dave Lonsdale might be sorting out transport problems for some Auckland based race walkers. 

2016 National XC Champs The Domain Auckland Sun 8 Aug

Individual Results
Team Results
Athletics NZ Race Report
NZ Herald Report (Via ANZ)
Some photos below for those that manage to find them.

The National XC champs this year were held in Auckland’s domain (in the sports ground part of the park) with the course used as a trial for the World Masters Games in April 2017. The word on the street is that the nationals will be back in the same place next year although this will need to be confirmed.

The course is excellent for spectators with a grandstand on one side and a couple of hillocks on the other. Conditions were pretty good considering that rain was forecast for the afternoon but never arrived. The turf was a bit sticky in places but nowhere near the mud bath at the Wellington XC champs. On the other hand the chilly southerly that popped up after midday may have bothered a few, especially those runners from the warm Pacific nations.

The U20 and senior events also doubled as the Oceania XC Champs so the race winners in these grades become the Oceania champs as well, although only NZ registered athletes can pick up the NZ title.

There were reasonable numbers in all races with the exception of the Senior Women and Senior Men. I think this is an issue which needs to be addressed by the sport, but I wouldn’t hold your breath. A glance at the current registration statistics shows that the sport is mostly made up of children and old people. Rego’s for men and women in the 20-39 age range are incredibly low and I don’t think circulating a recruitment poster featuring Valerie Adams and other Olympians, as ANZ have done, will be attractive to this demographic.

Senior Men's Photos

Senior Women's Photos

Women's U20 Photos

Men's U18 Photos

Women's U18 Photos 

Masters Women Photos 

Masters Men Photos

Kids U15 Photos

Kids U13 Photos

Kids U11 Photos