New Zealand Road Relays background

The New Zealand Road Relays is the premier Club Competition on the Athletics NZ calendar. This pits Clubs from thruout the country, head to head, with Teams of 5-8 runners competing in various Grades: Seniors, Juniors, Masters, both Men and Women; and Over 50 Open.

The event is held annually in early October, on various courses around the country. In recent years, at Christchurch, Feilding, Timaru and Dunedin. This year, back on the classic Christchurch to Akaroa course. Next year, at Taranaki.

From this, it can be seen that for many years of National Relays, Auckland Clubs always have to travel south, at not inconsiderable cost. To correct this imbalance, the Pakuranga Club has successfully bid to host the 2011 Relays.  The National Road Relays were last held in Auckland in 1998, on a concentric course at Kumeu. The difficulty has been to find a suitable course close to a major metropolitan area. We have chosen a course in Hunua, based from the YMCA Camp Adair, which we think is safe, challenging and iconic. 

We trialed part of this course for the Auckland Road Relays this year; and plan a full trial in 2010. For the Nationals in 2011, we anticipate 150+ Teams, which together with their Managers and Drivers, would mean well over 1000 people; quite a logistical exercise. The Junior teams will be accommodated at Camp Adair and others at motels in South Auckland.

Pakuranga teams have had some successes in the National Road Relays: during the 1990’s our Over 50 team won several times. Our Senior Women were Champions in 2007 & 2008.

Other teams have run places and have the potential to improve.