Southland professional coach Lance Smith backs Otago and wants the South Island to get its share of New Zealand championships.

Since the last national track and field championships were held in Dunedin in 2011, no championships have been held in the South Island.

They were held in Auckland in 2012 and 2013. The next two events have been scheduled for Wellington in 2014 and 2015. The pre-Olympics championships in 2016 have been guaranteed for Auckland.

In his editorial in the latest Southland Athletics News, Smith asked Athletics New Zealand to ''please think again. Or athletics in the regions will wither and die.''

Smith regularly brings elite Southland athletes to Dunedin for competition leading to New Zealand secondary school or national club championships.

''Not having a national championship in Dunedin or Timaru is snubbing an important part of the country - our part,'' he wrote.

''Irrespective of financial returns, I would rather have a full grandstand of enthusiastic fans at Dunedin than a half-empty stand at Mount Smart or Waitakere, as has been the case over the past three years.

''Last time the nationals were at Dunedin in 2011, the stand was full and the fence lines packed.

''The Auckland venues at Waitakere and Mount Smart had no support, little media coverage and not much atmosphere.

''Our up and coming youngsters have the right to see the role models of the sport in action close to home,'' he wrote.

''Our officials have the right to officiate (and improve their gradings) close to home. Our media has the right to cheer on local talent. Our athletes have the right to perform close to home.''

Athletics New Zealand has argued holding the championships in the North Island makes more financial sense, but that does not wash with Smith.

''A company that focuses on its profit margins and ignores its customers will eventually have no customers, and no profits.

''Athletics New Zealand, you can't afford to ignore your customers.

''Financial considerations go both ways. We (Southland) and Otago athletes and officials, too, now have to travel to the North Island four years in a row, and that is an enormous cost.

''The national secondary schools championships and classic meets adds to the burden.''

Smith said it was his personal view but he believed it was one ''shared by most, if not all, involved in athletics in Southland''.