The national decathlon and heptathlon championships will take place at the Caledonian Ground over the weekend. Also on the programme is a new event to encourage junior participation — the South Island combined weights grade.
It is the first time the Caledonian Ground has held the event but, unfortunately, not many of the country’s leading athletes in the multi-event discipline will be showing up.
Some are injured, others have decided to not journey south, and others have competed in a major meet in Australia already so have decided to skip the national championships.
The multi-event is always very taxing on the body and many athletes compete in only a couple of the two-day competitions every year.
Entries overall, though, were not too bad, with the majority of the entrants coming from Otago and Southland.
Initially, no centre put its hand up to hold the event but Dunedin decided to host the championships and athletes from the South have got in behind it.
Overall, there are 29 entrants in the decathlon and heptathlon event.
Natalie Booth, from Auckland, will be one to watch in the heptathlon, while Stacey Gunn, of Otago, will also be lining up in the senior women’s grade.
Max Attwell, of Christchurch, is lining up in the decathlon along with Dunedin youngster Felix McDonald.
A combined weights event is also being held for younger athletes who have an eye on the multi event in the future.
Decathlon and heptathlon are tough disciplines to master, with so many different events requiring various skills.
The combined weights event will have a modified heptathlon event for females and a decathlon for males, which will become an octathlon by dropping down to eight events.
The idea was the brainchild of New Zealand Athletics high performance planning and campaign manager Terry Lomax.
It was hoped the shorter version of the event would entice more youngsters into what is a difficult sport. Many end up dropping away from the sport at this age.
The two events dropped in the male grade are the high jump and javelin. Many athletes struggle with the pole vault, but it has been kept in the event to get athletes to try it.
In both the female and male grades, the athletes can drop their worst score in one event.
Junior athletes are under-16 and there are 14 entries, mainly from Southland.
The competition will start tomorrow at 9am and finish on Sunday afternoon.
