The Oceania Athletics Championships is an

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

event organized by the

Oceania Athletics Association The Oceania Athletics Association (OAA) is the governing body for the sport of athletics in Oceania. The OAA head office is located in Varsity Lakes, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. History The OAA was founded as Oceania Amateur Athletic Or ...

(OAA) for the

World Athletics World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body fo ...

(WA) (formerly the IAAF) member associations of the Oceania region. First held in 1990 in Suva, it was initially conceived as a quadrennial event; however, after the second edition in 1994, the championships changed to a biennial event. After the 2010 championships, there were significant changes in the format of the competition. Now being held as a regional championships (in 2011 and 2012), the associations were divided into two divisions based on their geographical location (either east or west). However, the competition was revised back to its original format as an area championships in 2013. The event has been held jointly with the Under-20 championships since 1994 and Under-18 championships since 2000. For the first time in 2014, para-athletics events were included in the championships. Since the inaugural championships in 1990 (up until 2017), unlike the rest of the OAA member federations, only Australia and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

send their second tier teams to compete in the championships. This was to allow pacific island nations to be competitive and challenge for medals. However, in 2019, the championships became a fully tier-one competition when the then IAAF (now

), made a change in the qualification system for the 2019 World Championships in

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the count ...

as well as the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

set for

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

. The rule change saw athletes would only qualify for either competition through their

ranking points. This meant that continental championships were now offering more points under the WA world rankings system.

Editions

The 2021 edition set for

Korman Stadium Korman Stadium is a sports stadium located in Port Vila, Vanuatu. It is the national stadium and the home of the Vanuatu national football team. The stadium's capacity is 6,500. Korman stadium was named for one of Vanuatu's politicians, the head ...

in Port Vila was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, making this the first cancellation of the event.

All-time medal table

The all-time Oceania Athletics Championships medal table is the sum of all medals won by OAA member federations, associate members, as well as invited teams from the very first edition till the most recent championships in

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

. All medals counted are based on the official results posted on the

website. Medals won by Para-athletes are also included. Associate members with medals are listed in ''italic''. * Associate members of OAA - Not recognized by

. * Regional Australia is a team from Northern Australia competing as invitees at every championships since 2013. * Tahiti West Coast competed once back in 2013 as a local team from the host federation of French Polynesia. * Australia Masters team competed once back in 2015 as an invited team from the host federation of Australia. As of 2019, only

Tuvalu Tuvalu ( or ; formerly known as the Ellice Islands) is an island country and microstate in the Polynesian subregion of Oceania in the Pacific Ocean. Its islands are situated about midway between Hawaii and Australia. They lie east-nor ...

(OAA member federation) and

Niue Niue (, ; niu, Niuē) is an island country in the South Pacific Ocean, northeast of New Zealand. Niue's land area is about and its population, predominantly Polynesian, was about 1,600 in 2016. Niue is located in a triangle between Tong ...

(OAA associate member) have yet to win a medal.

Championship records

Regional Championships

Oceania Athletics has three regions. Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. Since 2000, each region, in a non area championships year hold their own regional championships. The regions at the regional meetings decide the location for the Championships.

Melanesian Championships

, , , , , , and competed for the Melanesian Championships.

Micronesian Championships

, , , , , , and competed for the Micronesian Championships.

Polynesian Championships

, , , , , , , and competed for the Polynesian Championships.

Oceania Cup

In addition, there was a short-lived Oceania Cup, where teams from Australia,

, and the respective host country competed with combined teams from Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. The Australian team recruited from the winner team of the Australian Clubs Championships, which was, in both years, the University of Queensland Athletic Club.

References

External links

Official Athletics Oceania website
{{Oceanian Championships

Athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

Recurring sporting events established in 1990