Dunedin again boasts New Zealand's newest all-weather track at the Caledonian Ground.
Work began on the $500,000 overhaul at the beginning of March. In addition to a new track, work has also been completed on a new water jump and long jump run-up.
The track has yet to be certified, but an international athletics representative from Brisbane or Auckland is set to re-survey the track to ensure it is accredited.
Minus ''one or two minor things'', Athletics Otago track and field committee chairman Alex Merrilees was pleased the work had been completed.
''It's been good. It's an international standard track, but there's a few markings that schools use that still need to go on,'' he said.
The new track will be used by the country's best athletes when the Caledonian Ground hosts the national championships in March.
Dunedin would not be hosting the championships, which doubles as an Olympic qualifier, had the track not been replaced, Merrilees said.
''It's really good. We have got a big season next year - especially the later part of it.''
That ''big season'' also includes another national meeting in Dunedin - the national masters track and field championships at the end of February.
''We have got interprovincials, plus we have to fit in all the secondary school events in. It's going to be a busy time,'' Merrilees said.
There is also hope the Caledonian will host the national secondary schools championships in 2017 and the Oceania masters championships in 2018.
Athletics Otago is planning to celebrate the completion of the new track with a winter meeting next month, but whether it goes ahead will come down to weather and if the track has been certified or not.
The life span of the new track is expected to be about 10 years, which is the same as the old surface.
However, it was 15 years before the Dunedin City Council opted to fully replace the track. Instead it opted to re-surface the track in 2009.
With work on the replacement track putting it out of action from March, the Otago-Southland and South Island secondary schools championships had to be hosted in Invercargill and Nelson respectively.
Dunedin had the first all-weather track in New Zealand when it was opened at the old Caledonian Ground in 1962.
The track was shifted to Logan Park in 1999 and the first track season there was in 1999-2000.
