Best Places To Practice Athletics In Auckland Near Me

4worldlovers: Sat13janChildren's 10-14 Grade / McKinnon Shield 6/ John Walker U20 Men's Mile and Millie Sampson U23 Women's Mile

50th New Zealand Secondary Schools Track and Field Championships and 48th Road Race Championships

4worldlovers:
Our 2023 Club's AGM is up on August 24th - 7pm in the Commonwealth Room at AUT Millennium.

Visit our Join Us page for details on membership types and fees

Welcome to the North Harbour Bays Athletics Club website! We are proud of our Club and our Athletes and hope you will join us. This site provides you with information about our Club, membership, coaching, state-of-the-art facilities at AUT Millennium, disciplines and age group sections, and what we have to offer, including social media buzz.

Bays Athletics is the Premier Athletics and Running Club on Auckland's North Shore, and the first winner of the New Zealand National “Club of the Year” title, awarded from all sports, nationwide.

Bays club life member and club coach Russ Hoggard passed away in the night of March 14.

He was 93 years old and still coaching twice a week, with Tony Catchpole and their club squad.

Russ entered Athletics in the 1950s, when in his mid 20s, after success as a National cycling medallist. He joined Western Suburbs club and represented Auckland as a sprinter. He reached the National Championships 440yards final in 1956 at Christchurch.

He began coaching soon after and in 1958 was approached by Beverly Weigel, formerly coached by Yvette William’s coach Jim Bellwood, who was no longer accessible, and she became his first Nationally ranked athlete. Russ coached Beverly to the 1960 Olympics and soon had a group of athletes under him.

He continued coaching in Lynndale, Waitemata (now Waitakere) Counties and North Harbour Bays clubs and lost count of the number of Provincial and National representatives he coached over the next 66 years.

He was coach to NZ Commonwealth Games and Oceania World Cup teams and spent some time in Germany working with leading hurdle coaches. His long list of international athletes include Brenda Matthews (Commonwealth Games hurdles final), Cameron Taylor (Olympics sprinter and now ANZ Chairman), Sue Haden (Commonwealth Games 800m silver medal), Frazer Wickes (5th World Youth Champs 400m). His last International athlete was hurdler and former Heptathlete Portia Bing. Under his coaching Portia won many National titles and representations, the highlight being 5th in the World Junior Heptathlon Champs.

Jump coach Dave Norris coached alongside Russ for many years and said “Russ had an outstanding style, a fun-loving personality who saw the funny side of anything or anyone who had one, and like most successful coaches took a compassionate personal interest in every athlete he coached. He was a taskmaster with a smile and if you shirked you were told about it. The enormous improvement athletes made under his coaching was astonishing.”

Russ was given an Athletics NZ Merit Award in 2010, was made a life Member of the Bays club and In 2018 was awarded a Queens Service Medal for his contribution to coaching.

4worldlovers: Owairaka Athletics has a proud history in athletics dating back more than 75 years. We're a family friendly club that reflects the diversity of the Owairaka community. Our athletes enjoy a supportive environment, connected to Athletics NZ best practice. We champion both competitive excellence and the enjoyment of participation.


Our junior athletics program caters for children from 3 - 15 years in age. We run age specific activities and training which becomes more specialised as our athletes progress. We have a specific focus on creating a family friendly atmosphere where our junior athletes have fun and thrive.

4worldlovers: Family orientated club, encouraging participation, enjoyment and personal development for our athletes

To register a child for this season please use this link Click Here

Ages: Tiny Tots (2yrs-6yrs), Juniors 7-14yrs, Seniors 14yrs up

Athletics develops your child’s running, throwing and jumping – skills that are essential for all competitive team sports such as rugby, league and netball. It also develops the competitive edge developed through regularly racing and competing against each other and other athletes in a number of athletics events held during the season.

The Auckland and Counties Manukau Relay Championships are team events where Papatoetoe are traditionally strong and do well in.

4worldlovers: As a charitable trust, we exist to make a difference. Our unique environment provides a hub for high performance and a home for the community. In 2009, we joined forces with AUT University to enable world-leading research in sport and human performance.


We’re Kiwi and proud of it, unwavering supporters of our leading athletes and our local everyday champions. It doesn’t matter if the goal is a gold medal, learning to swim or maintaining a healthy lifestyle, we can help you get there.

We’ve grown to become cemented as New Zealand’s leader in sports, health and wellness. After almost 20 years, that is still the driving force of our team – everything we do is to help you be the best you can be.