The pressure will be on Otago athletes Marshall Hall (Taieri), Rozie Robinson (Hill City) and Hannah Blair (Taieri) as they defend their New Zealand senior titles in Auckland this weekend.
Hall (23) is a the hot favourite to win the men's discus title for the fourth year in a row. He has a best throw of 53.67m this season and is 4m ahead of Warren Button (Waikato-Bay of Plenty).
Hall has thrown over 55m in training but he has still to crack this mark in the heat of competition.
The late Robin Tait's 45-year-old Otago record of 56.86m is tantalisingly close.
Robinson has the edge on the rest of the women race walkers and should win the 3000m track and 20km road titles.
Her best times are 13min 42.30sec (3km) and 1hr 58min 38sec (20km).
Blair, who has won the women's javelin for the last two years, has only had one competitive outing this season when she won the Otago title with a throw of 38.56m.
The Raylene Bates-coached thrower is only ranked sixth and will need to improve by 8m to beat Emily Baker (Auckland), who has a best throw of 46.29m this season.
The other reigning champion who is expected to get the gold medal again is Rory McSweeney (Taieri) in the AWD javelin. He has a best throw of 44.30m, which ranks him 13th in the world.
The Bates-trained athlete is targeting the London Paralympics but to get there he will need to improve by another 2m.
He is also contesting the senior men's javelin.
Holly Robinson (Taieri) broke the New Zealand F 46 record in Wellington last month with a throw of 32.19m and is certain to win a gold medal in the AWD javelin. She is ranked sixth in the world.
If she can add 2m in Auckland she could book her berth to the Paralympics.
Andrew Whyte (Hill City) ran the fastest 400m in the country this season when he won the gold medal at the New Zealand secondary schools championships in Wellington in a record time of 46.91sec.
He has already qualified for the world junior athletics championships in Barcelona in July and is expected to add the national junior under-20 title to his collection. The Jim Baird-coached athlete could also win the 200m.
Daniel O'Shea (Hill City) could reach the podium in the senior men's 400 and Larissa Dyke (Taieri) in the women's 100m.
It is crunch time for athletes vying for a place in the New Zealand team to the London Olympics.
Former Otago athlete Andrea Miller, a bronze medallist in the 100m hurdles in Delhi, will be seeking a qualifying time in the 100m hurdles.
Jacko Gill (Auckland), who has qualified for London with the senior 7.26kg shot put, will be competing in the junior men's shot put and discus. He is concentrating on the lighter 6kg shot put in his lead-up to the world junior championships.
Valerie Adams stayed on in Europe after winning the world indoor title to prepare for the Olympic Games at her base in Switzerland. Adams has won 11 straight shot put titles.
Otago is sending a 48-strong team to Auckland and will be attempting to match the record achieved in Dunedin last year when 43 medals were won - 15 gold, 17 silver and 11 bronze.
