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The owners of a revamped holiday park are aiming to relaunch the Dunedin Kids TRYathlon after longtime sponsor Sanitarium decided to pull out.
The news comes barely two days after Sanitarium signalled its moves not to include the city in its 2026-27 calendar for the event, after several decades of involvement.
MYHUB Holiday Parks has announced it will launch the MYHUB Dunedin Kids TRYathlon, with the inaugural event to be held on Saturday, March 6, 2027.
MYHUB Holiday Parks director Adam Stewart said it was a no-brainer.
‘‘We thought, bugger it, let’s do it.
‘‘It’s a good crossover for us because holiday parks are about family and stuff like that and we’re due to open in Dunedin and we thought, well, let’s pitch in and help out.’’
Already, it had been receiving offers of sponsorship and assistance, Mr Stewart said.
‘‘We’ve had quite a lot of people reach out, to be fair.
‘‘It’s been quite overwhelming, to be honest. We’re just in the process of building things up; we’ve started building a website yesterday.’’
A key feature of the event would be its ‘‘Pay What You Can’’ registration model, he said.
Parents could choose to contribute $5, $10, $20 or $50 per child.
‘‘Regardless of the amount chosen, every participant will receive exactly the same event experience, including an official race T-shirt, finisher’s medal, participant bag and full entry to the event.
‘‘We know every family’s circumstances are different.
‘‘We don’t want cost to be the reason a child misses out. Every child deserves the same opportunity to take part and celebrate crossing the finish line.’’
The event will also include the MYHUB Everyone Belongs Walk, ensuring children of all abilities can be part of the day’s celebrations.
About 1400 children from across the South participated in pre-Covid-19 TRYathlon events.
The Otago Daily Times reported 971 children took part in this year’s event.
Mr Stewart said it was aiming for ‘‘about 1000’’ for their inaugural event, which it hoped would be held on either Taieri College grounds or Peter Johnstone Park in Mosgiel.
‘‘That’s our goal. If we get more, well and good.
‘‘But we’ll just have to scope out what’s a safe number — local companies have offered to do the safety and traffic management as well.
‘‘So that’s been brilliant because obviously that’s going to be a big cost to us.’’
Sport Otago chief executive James Nation, upon hearing the news of the revival bid, said he would be keen to talk to Mr Stewart and offer advice and ideas.
‘‘It could be a good thing,’’ Mr Nation said.