The biennial event has never been held in Oceania since its inception in 1985
New Zealand wants to host the 2028 World Indoor Championships. The nation has never held the biennial event – first staged in Paris in 1985 – before and hopes to be the first country from Oceania to do so.
New Zealand
According to The Herald, the bid has the backing of the New Zealand government. Such is the level of support that the nation’s Minister of Sport Chris Bishop met with World Athletics President Seb Coe at the Olympics to discuss the plans.
Athletics New Zealand CEO Cam Mitchell also backs the proposals and told The Herald: “We are hopeful this will be a nice positioning piece for sport in general. We see a lot of rugby, cricket, netball and football here but events like this, with [track and field] at an elite level – don’t come very often.”
Given the World Indoors takes place in early March it means that if New Zealand were to win the bid, the event would occur in the country’s late summer/early autumn.
With milder temperatures at that time of the year compared to the northern hemisphere, it also gives New Zealand the opportunity to host the championships outdoors, potentially somewhere like Eden Park in Auckland or the new One New Zealand Stadium in Christchurch, which is scheduled to open in 2026.
Hamish Kerr (Getty)
This is because World Athletics renamed ‘indoor athletics’ to ‘short track’ last year, in a bid to encourage outdoor competition innovation.
That means that the 200m short track will no longer be confined to the indoor environment, including the governing body’s landmark championships.
The main requirements to host the championships would be an arena/stadium that has a minimum capacity of 5000 people and a six-lane oval track, plus eight on the straight for sprints.
New Zealand also boast a number of stars in athletics like Hamish Kerr, Maddi Wesche, Tom Walsh, Zoe Hobbs, Eliza McCartney and George Beamish.
Both Kerr and Beamish won gold medals, in the high jump and 3000m respectively, at the most recent World Indoors in Glasgow and have stated that it would be an incredible opportunity for New Zealand to host the championships.
“It would be around selling the experience to the Europeans but to get them all over here would be a challenge,” Kerr told NewstalkZB.
“I think we do have some really good comparative advantages. Obviously, being in the summer means they can come down here and do a training block out of the cold, European winters.”
Geordie Beamish (Getty)
Earlier this year, Beamish told AW that “Australia have shown in the past couple of years that there’s really good potential for some good meets”.
He added: “It’s so hard to visualise [a World Championships] being possible in New Zealand but a short track championships would be way more realistic. It’d be crazy to see and engage a lot of fans. I think people takes a whole lot of pride in any sport.”
Expressions of interest for the 2028 event need to be lodged by December, with the final bid submitted by July next year.
The World Athletics Council will award hosting rights for the 2028 and 2030 editions next September.
