The 89th edition of the Australian track and field championships – the final ever athletics event at the spiritual home of the sport, Melbourne’ Olympic Park - marks the end of an era for the sport in Australia.

Steve Moneghetti, John Landy and Craig Mottram walk down the home straight at Melbourne's Olympic Park. Photo by Tom Nickson/Athletics Victoria.

The venue has provided a physical linkage between the glory days of the sport, when tens of thousands of spectators packed the venue to watch the sub-four minute mile quest of John Landy, to the present, where the likes of Steve Moneghetti and Craig Mottram have enamoured the albeit much smaller crowds.

That athletics will lose its place within Australia’s premier sporting precinct after this weekend is a sorry reflection of the decline in the sport’s prominence. From once being part of the national psyche it has become largely resigned to a biennial blip on the televisions of the nation when the Olympic and Commonwealth Games come around. (This year’s world championships will not be broadcast by any free to air network). It’s little wonder that turfing the sport from Olympic Park to make way for a new training ground for Collingwood Football Club was such a simple affair for the powers that be – a fait accompli.

A refurbished venue at Albert Park will be the new home of Victorian athletics, but already the loss of Olympic Park has constrained the sport’s future. Ironically, the event which is the last to be held at Olympic Park is the first casualty of the move to Albert Park. In an unprecedented move outside of the rare occasions where Australia has hosted the Olympic Games, next year’s Olympic selection trials have been divorced from the national championships.

It is understood the desire from a high performance perspective was a pre-Easter (8 April, 2012) nationals in order to allow sufficient athlete preparation for the early August Olympic athletics program; from a state association perspective, a post-Easter event providing greater flexibility in conducting their programs and championships. The issue is compounded by the inaccessibility of Albert Park due to the fortnight ‘bump in’ period for Melbourne’s flailing formula-one grand prix (22-25 March), essentially making the decision one between early March or mid April. And when the decision between maximising the wishes of the high performance unit and preventing mutiny from shareholders came to the fore, a compromise which cannibalises the national championships was the solution sought. The selection trials will be held over three days in conjunction with the Melbourne Track Classic (2-4 March) as the conclusion of the Australian Athletics Tour, while the national championships will be held in Melbourne six weeks later from 13-15 April.

“The Athletics Australia Board has deliberated and spent a great deal of due diligence in coming to this decision to split the Selection Trials and the Nationals,” Athletics Australia said in a statement.

“We feel it provides the best of both worlds for all athletes involved. The Olympic and Paralympic Games are Athletics Australia’s priorities in the quadrennial but we cannot forget the grass roots of our sport, including Club, State, National and Junior athletes who are the future of our sport.”

It will be a new era in the sport, where a national title will have diminished value. Prior to then, over the next three days Australia’s best athletes will farewell Olympic Park and battle for titles that have real importance, with the gold medallist an automatic selection for the world championships in Deagu, Korea if they achieve an IAAF A-qualifier, achieved one at the Commonwealth Games or have achieved two since 1 October, 2010.

Inside Athletics will be providing editorial and photographic coverage of the national championships.