Inside Athletics

The introduction of a new meet into the domestic season by Athletics NSW represents a landmark moment for athletics in this country.

The Hunter Track Classic, which will be held in Newcastle on Saturday, 6 February, is believed to be the first instance in Australia of an elite athletics meet being organised in competition to one held under the auspices of Athletics Australia ? in this case, clashing with the Brisbane Track Classic.

Inside Athletics has learned that many of Australia?s best middle distance athletes are choosing to bypass the Brisbane meet in preference for Newcastle, with the consistent quality of competition conducted by Athletics NSW, proximity to Sydney and more favourable climatic conditions being decisive factors in the decision making process of the athletes involved.

Midweek Athletics Australia announced that the men's 1500m in Brisbane had been canceled, with the high quality fields in the 800m and 3000m events in Newcastle understood to the have left the race unviable. Brisbane have added an 800m race to their program, but with the notable exception of Olympian Lachlan Renshaw, the race lacks the same overall quality of the one that will be contested in Newcastle.

Additionally, exciting innovations such as allowing spectators within the high jump fan are ensuring that local athletes who otherwise may have competed in Brisbane will stay in Newcastle.

"I can't wait," said Mark Taylor, a Newcastle based high jumper who represented Wales at the 2006 Commonwealth Games and has a personal best of 2.23m.

"I will have a couple of competitions under my belt by then and will be ready to put on a show for my friends and the crowd."

The move by Athletics NSW to schedule the meet on the same day as one of the Australian Athletics Tour meets introduces competition into a sector that has in the past been highly controlled and regulated. It is a mantra of economics that 'competition drives innovation' and thus, progress, in any industry. Will it be so for athletics in this country?

Unperturbed by the clash of dates, recently appointed CEO of Queensland Athletics, Grant Cremer, is enthusiastic about the return of a high profile one day meet to Brisbane with the Brisbane Track Classic. Over the previous three years the sunshine state has hosted the national championships as well as the relatively low key Australia Cup, which this year moves to Canberra.

"It's the return of high performance athletics to Brisbane," said Cremer, an Olympian in the 800m in Sydney.

"Our aim in the first year is to make the meet as much fun as possible for athletes and spectators.

"We want people to feel that the meet is an integral part of the Brisbane athletics community and want athletes to enjoy competing here so that they want to keep on coming back year after year."

Part of the irony of the first instance of free market enterprise in the conduct of athletics meets is the fact that both are being run on a shoestring budget. With the sport currently bereft of sponsorship this limitation affects the scale that the meets can be conducted at, but at the same time, provides the opportunity for substantial growth to occur with a relatively small increase of resources in real terms.

A similar clash of events will occur later in the season, with the Victorian and NSW championships scheduled for the same weekend (26-28 March). With an unprecedented gap of six weeks between Athletics Australia?s highest profile meets of the season ? the Sydney Track Classic and IAAF Melbourne Grand Prix ? and the national championships in Perth, state championships will be expected to resume the role which they held in the distant past of being high performance, and potentially, entertaining and high profile meets.

Will such an opportunity lead Athletics Victoria and Athletics NSW to market their events accordingly, and shrug off dogmatic beliefs about appearance and prize money in championship events, in order to entice prominent interstate athletes to compete and maximise the quality and exposure of their meets? The benefit (other than for the athletes involved) of doing so in the past may not have been great. But now?

Perhaps it is too much to ask for all at once. But the Hunter Track Classic is certainly a start.