The desire for centre representation led to the current situation whereby an athlete enters for the championships and from those entries, the centre identifies who it wishes to select, with the rest running for their club.
The onus to enter with payment lies with the athlete, with the centre taking on the responsibility for those selected at the actual championships as part of their centre team.
A present proposal for discussion is that competition at the New Zealand Athletics Championships will be for centre teams only, as it was in my early years in New Zealand.
Clearly, thought has to be given to how athletes enter and pay and it will be interesting how it all pans out.
Club merger
The first attempts for a merger of Wanganui Harriers and the Wanganui Athletics Club started back in 1981 and although stalled on two separate occasions, discussions are ongoing and will be decided at special or annual general meetings in the months ahead.
I was pleased to attend the Wanganui Harrier Club AGM on Thursday and was able to field questions on the strengths of merging, highlighting the opportunities provided and hopefully allaying some of the perceived threats.
Wanganui Harriers has just celebrated its centenary and the Wanganui Athletics Club will celebrate its 150th birthday in 2027.
I earnestly hope that together, the clubs will achieve other significant milestones.
Olympics schedule announced
At the Mexico Olympics in 1968, for the first time, the track and field programme started in week one of the Olympic Games.
I remember it well, as my Loughborough College athletics captain ran for Bermuda in the 400m hurdles and also sailed for Bermuda in the second week.
The same athlete expressed frustration and anger that he could not persuade two boxers to run in a 4x400m race at the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games in 1990.
This placement has not been repeated until 2028 in Los Angeles, where track and field will span the entire duration of the Olympic Games, with 13 days of competition starting on day one on July 15, 2028 and continuing through to the final day, as announced last week.
The first 10 days of action will take place at the LA Memorial Coliseum from July 15 to 24.
Road events will be held on July 27, 29 and 30, with the men’s marathon being the last event.
The men’s marathon medal winners will be awarded during the closing ceremony.
The 100m women’s event will be completed on the first day, with all three rounds providing a dramatic start to the competition.
The repechage round will return in Los Angeles in the 2028 Olympics, after its first appearance in Paris in 2024.
Under a new format for Los Angeles, there will be more recovery time for some athletes.
There is at least 36 hours between round one and repechage in the 400m and about 24 hours for the 800m and 1500m, allowing leading qualifiers a longer recovery.
At the Paris Olympics, only two of 73 athletes went through to a final after a repechage.
It might make for good TV and give a longer recovery time for some leading athletes but one can’t help feeling that commercial reasons have driven the decision.
Programming will never suit all athletes and, notably, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone will be unable to attempt the double in the 400m and the 400m hurdles, to the great disappointment of her many American supporters.
Club nights
In the mid-1970s, Athletics Wanganui club nights changed from Thursday to Tuesday for a number of reasons, including clashes with other sports in the city.
Tuesday night allows athletes to double club with weekend track and field events.
From time to time, this has been reviewed, before retaining Tuesdays.
This week, as in the past, is four days out from the final Central League in Masterton and Athletics Wanganui held the C programme with its non-standard and shorter distances, providing sound preparation for the weekend with Jonathan Maples impressing over 60m and 150m.