Oceania Athletics had great pleasure in presenting the long overdue Merit Award to Maria Clarke, New Zealand. Maria was a member of the World Athletics legal Commission from 2007 – 2019 and Chair of the Governance and Integrity Reform Working Group from 2016 -2019.
Maria has had a strong relationship with Athletics New Zealand assisting with legal matters over a long period. It was here that Oceania Athletics recognised Maria’s strong governance experience and recruited her to assist with the complete rewrite of the OAA constitution. In 2019 OAA adopted a new, more contemporary constitution which we now operate under. And this year will see the importance of the constitution with OAA, for the first time, establishing a gender equity mandate.
Maria was instrumental in this process being achieved and we have all benefited from Maria’s extensive experience across several sports and her involvement with the IOC and the Australian and New Zealand Sports Law Associations.
Maria has helped shape the future of Athletics globally, whilst ensuring a, stronger voice for athletes, the empowerment of Member Federations and stronger Area Associations, Integrity direction and gender equity.
Maria was awarded the OAA women’s award in 2019 and we were delighted to recognise Maria at the Sir Graeme Douglas International Continental Bronze Tour meet in Auckland with the Oceania Merit Award.
