OCEANIA ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS – 2006 Apia (December 12-16) By Bob Snow (Photos and Story) As in recent Oceania Athletics Championships, this 8th edition started with a Grand Prix Series. The original idea was to hold the competition in Suva, Fiji, but politics got in the way of the best made plans.  We all knew that a…

OCEANIA ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS – 2004 Townsville (December 16-18)  By Bob Snow Townsville is the first town to hold the OAA Championship for a second time. The infrastructure and the circle of local officials have made it an easy decision to hold the event there more than once. All the action took place at the Townsville…

OCEANIA ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS – 2002 Christchurch (December 12-14)  After successful Oceania Grand Prix competitions in Ballarat and Melbourne, the sporting caravan crossed the Tasman Sea to New Zealand to get ready for the sixth Oceania Athletics Championships in Christchurch.  After an impressive Maori welcoming ceremony, the IAAF Area Delegate, Bill Bailey, was required to reply…

OCEANIA ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS – 2000 Adelaide (August 24-26)  Coming just a month before the start of the Sydney Olympic Games, it was a meet fraught with tension, drama and importance. The Senior and the Youth Championships were held in conjunction with each other. In this outing of the OAA Championships the Junior Division was replaced…

Sixteen nations competed in the third Oceania Athletics Championships, including the Federated States of Micronesia who had been admitted to the IAAF (now World Athletics) earlier in the year. There were 42 events contested with 22 for men and 20 for women.  The outstanding athlete of the meet was Tonga’s Siulolo Liku who won the…

The second Oceania Athletics Championships was held in Auckland, New Zealand, from 22-26 February. This is right in the middle of the Australian and New Zealand Athletics season, but it was a very early wake-up call for many of the island nations. The venue was the Mt Smart Stadium, home of the 1990 Commonwealth Games….