Nitro Athletics
Current season, competition or edition: 2017 Nitro Athletics | |
| Sport | Athletics |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2017 |
| Official website | Nitro Athletics.com.au |
Nitro Athletics was a track and field series featuring multi-day meetings between teams of twelve athletes. The teams contained both men and women and also para-athletics competitors. There are both national and international teams. The events contested were a mix of Olympic-standard events and variations on common athletics events.[1]
The series was created by Athletics Australia (AA). The president of the AA, Mark Arbib, stated his interest in creating a novel competition was the result of his seeing dwindling interest in traditional one-day track and field meetings, citing in particular low crowds he saw at the 2015 Sydney Track Classic.[2] The sport's leading star, Usain Bolt, was recruited as a co-investor and performer of the series. Despite breaking from the standard setup of athletics competitions, the series was supported by Sebastian Coe, head of the International Association of Athletics Federations.[3][4]
The series was hosted at Lakeside Stadium in Melbourne over three separate days (4, 9, 11 February).[5] The six teams to feature were New Zealand, Australia, England, China, Japan and the Bolt All-Stars (a mix of athletes from the Americas and Africa).[6][7][8] The events attracted near-capacity crowds of the 8,000 seat arena and was broadcast on live television across many of the competing nations.[2]
Generalist media gave a positive response to the event, with the Herald Sun describing it as a "raging success".[9] The reaction from specialist media was more mixed, however, with Athletics Weekly saying the ideas "have been tried before. Nitro Athletics has merely thrown them all into one meeting".[10]
Athletics Australia announced that the planned 2018 series would not be held due to calendar constraints related to the Commonwealth Games being held on the Gold Coast in April.
Events
- 60 metres
- 100 metres
- 150 metres
- 3-minute distance challenge relay (mixed gender)
- Elimination mile run
- 4×100 metres relay (mixed gender)
- 2×300 m relay (mixed gender)
- Distance medley relay (mixed gender)
- 110 m hurdles/100 m hurdles
- Combined-height pole vault
- Long jump (including bonus points)
- Javelin throw (including targets)
- Para-athletics 100 metres
- Para-athletics 200 metres
See also
References
- ^ Nitro Athletics: Usain Bolt All-Stars team to face England in 'revolutionary' meet. BBC Sport (2 February 2017). Retrieved on 2017-02-13.
- ^ a b Nitro goes off with a bang, returning crowds to athletics. The Australian (13 February 2017). Retrieved on 2017-02-13.
- ^ Coe sold on the Nitro Athletics concept. The Australian (11 February 2017). Retrieved on 2017-02-13.
- ^ Clean sweep for Bolt All-Stars at Nitro Athletics meet in Melbourne. Jamaica Gleaner (11 February 2017). Retrieved on 2017-02-13.
- ^ Bolt launches Nitro Athletics in Melbourne . IAAF (4 November 2016). Retrieved on 2017-02-13.
- ^ NITRO Athletics – 4/02/2017 Archived 5 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine. Nitro Athletics. Retrieved on 13 February 2017.
- ^ NITRO Athletics Melbourne – 9/02/2017. Nitro Athletics. Retrieved on 13 February 2017.
- ^ NITRO Athletics Final Melbourne – 11/02/2017. Nitro Athletics. Retrieved on 13 February 2017.
- ^ Gullen, Scott (12 February 2017). Aussie teen’s incredible showing encapsulates everything we love about Nitro Athletics. Herald Sun. Retrieved on 2017-02-13.
- ^ Henderson, Jason (10 February 2017). Nitro Athletics fails to explode. Athletics Weekly. Retrieved on 2017-02-13.