PORT HUNTER ZONE ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS - DETAILS & ENTRIES
This year RTAC will be hosting the Zone Championships at our home track on Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd November 2026. This is the first of two qualifying Championships for athletes to be eligible to compete at the NSW State Championships in March 2027.
Details on how to enter will be released as the event gets closer.
The Zone Championships are conducted in each of the 23 zones throughout NSW. The Zone Championships are open to all athletes registered with NSW Athletics. Events will be offered in the 7s-15s age groups. Some Zones may offer opportunities in the 16s, 17s and Under 20 age groups but these are purely for competition experience and participation. Athletes in these age groups do not progress through the competition pathway and will have to enter Region and/or State directly if they wish to compete. 7s age groups compete no further than the Zone Championships and 8s age groups compete no further than Region Championships.
Our Zone, Port Hunter, is made up of 13 local Athletics Clubs - Adamstown-New Lambton Athletics Club, Medowie LAC, Newcastle City Little Athletics, Newcastle Flyers Runners Club, Newcastle Runners Inc, Newcastle Veterans Athletics Club, Port Stephens Athletics Club, Raymond Terrace Athletics Centre, Stockton Little Athletics, Stroud Little Athletics, Thornton Little Athletics, Tilligerry and District Little Athletics Centre and Wallsend RSL Athletic Club.
The top three (3) athletes in each event at Zone Championships will automatically qualify to compete at the Regional Championships (Region 2) to be held in February 2027 @ Hunter Sports Centre, Glendale. The next-best four (4) athletes will be progressively added to the qualifying list as all four (4) local Zone Championships are completed.
Parents are reminded that if their child is competing at Zone, they will be required to do at least one duty as a helper at some time over the weekend either on the field, in the computer room or in the Canteen. This is a requirement of the Port Hunter Zone Committee - see details below.
Each year the Port Hunter Zone hosts the Zone Athletics Carnival. Each centre is allocated duties that they must fill over the weekend to allow the carnival to proceed, much like a normal Saturday morning meet at our centre. The number of duties that are allocated depends on the number of children that attend from each centre. The duties could include Time Keeping, Place Judging on the finish line, helping at one of the throws or jumps, or doing a stint in the Canteen or helping in the computer room, just like you do every Saturday.
The Track Duties are usually about 2-3 hours (shared), the Field Duties last for the length of time for the event/s that you are rostered on for and the Canteen duties last about 1 hour. Our committee will make up a parent’s roster once entries are received and we know which duties are allocated to our club. This will be displayed at the Centre and time will be given for parents to request changes if necessary.
Parents are required to pay a $50 refundable deposit per child to a maximum of $100 per family for those who are entering Zone.
Payments can be made via online payment (direct deposit) or in person on Saturday mornings (see Barbara in the clubhouse)
Direct Deposit details:
Name: Raymond Terrace Athletics Centre
BSB: 650 000 Account No: 965 308 626
For those athletes who have not qualified for Region Championships, the deposits will be refunded at the next centre meet following Zone to each family who has completed their rostered duties at the Zone Carnival. If your child has qualified for Region Championships your deposit will be refunded after you have done your duty at Region Championships. If someone is rostered on to do a duty and they do not turn up they will forfeit their money and the person who has had to do extra duties because of this will be given the money. Please note that if you did not have a duty originally and you fill in for someone this will be considered your duty and you will not be entitled to the additional $50.