Register online now for children’s athletics (2025-26)
*Registrations are open for 4-14 year olds!*
Keep scrolling to find out everything you need to know for the 2025-26 Hill City–University Children’s Athletics season.
Welcome
To a friendly, family orientated athletics club for children in Dunedin. Our overriding passion and purpose is to share our passion for athletics to the next generation.
Ultimately, our vision is to foster our club members to be the best that they can be. We structure our training to support having fun and participation whilst learning essential skills that are the foundation for many other sports. We hold no club championships, rather we base our recognition on attendance, participation and achievement across the athletics season, across all disciplines.
Athletics is a sport that develops a sense of competition, resilience, to get up and try again as well, it builds confidence within a team environment.
Our club is run by volunteers and our coaches are mostly current young athletes, typically who have been athletes from a young age at our club and have commonly and successfully competed at a national level.
So, if you want your children to have fun, make new friends, learn how to run faster, jump and throw further, then come and join our family orientated children’s athletic club.
Joining up
To find out about Hill City-University summer children’s athletics, come to our training evenings on Tuesdays from 5.30-7.45pm.
We offer competitive and non-competitive options and to join in the fun, register online, or at one of our registration days, and get your club uniform (only required for competitive athletes).
Online Registration is now open.
Coaching and Training – Tuesday evening
Children’s training and coaching is held every Tuesday evening; for those aged between 4 and 9 from 5.30pm to 6.45pm and for 10-14’s from 6.30pm to 7.45pm at Hill City–University clubrooms, Logan Park.
Our first coaching and training session for the 2025-26 season is on Tuesday, 14 October 2025.
For health and safety, we require that all parents or an assigned caregiver remain present whilst their children train or compete.
Each training we require some parents to assist our coaches while they train the children. On a club night we typically start with a warm-up, jogging around the field outside the clubrooms and doing stretching exercises. For 4-9’s this starts at 5.30pm sharp and 10-14’s, 6.30pm. After the warm-up the children will be taken across the road for training. Training is typically no longer than an hour. For the under 5’s and non-competitive 6’s it is typically around 30–45 minutes. Each week, Grade 6 to 9 competitive athletes spend 20 minutes practicing three different disciplines according to a weekly roster, while the Grade 10 to 14’s have variety of sessions that focus on technical and education along with fitness work.
There is training for relays, sprints, middle distance, high jump, long jump, discus, shot put and hurdles.
For older children who want to develop their athletic skills, we facilitate joining junior development squads. These squads are managed separately by experienced coaches. If you think you may be interested in these please talk to one of our committee members on training nights.
Coaches for blocks, sprints, middle distance, relays, hurdles, walk, long jump, high jump, discus, shot put, and administration are always welcome.
We split our training times to accommodate the ages of our club members
- 4-5 year olds– Get Set Go: 5.30pm to 6:45pm (or whenever they run out of steam!)
- 6-9 year olds – 5.30-6.45pm
- 10-14 year olds – 6.30-7.45pm
If the weather is bad, cancellations will posted on our Facebook page.
Saturday Competition:
Interclub track and field competitions are held on most Saturdays (9am-12.30pm) at the Caledonian over the summer season. Attendance at interclub competitions is encouraged but entirely voluntary. At the interclub competitions, children get an opportunity to showcase the skills learned at club nights.
Competition times and dates are published on our Facebook Page & Otago Children’s Athletics Facebook page. We have provided the draft programme below.
The club provides singlets on loan to all athletes involved in interclub competition; athletes are required to wear their own black shorts to complete the club uniform. If your child wants to wear anything that shows under their singlet it must be either plain black or plain white.
The age for the season is set at the age on 31 December 2025. Age on this day determines athlete’s grade for the whole season.
SATURDAY COMPETITION:
- 6-9 year olds – 9-10.30am
- 10-14 year olds 10.30-12.30pm
Children’s Summer Season Programme
The Grade 12-14 year olds will be combined with the Seniors for some meets and also have the option of competing with the Seniors on a Saturday afternoon, this is a great opportunity to run alongside and watch some of Otago’s finest athletes in action! Races are seeded so you run against athletes with the same ability as yourself, with such a broad age range Pb’s are the main focus at Senior’s rather than placings. You also get the chance to try some events that aren’t offered at Children’s such as Triple Jump, Hammer Throw, Javelin, Longer Distance running & Pole Vault. Registration is required for these meetings, please follow the Athletics Otago Facebook page for more info.
Check out the Senior Summer Programme here:
We also require parent help on a Saturday morning, Shot Put assistants and if required finish line assistants, plus help with other events is always appreciated!
Competitions throughout the season include:
- Paape Cup/Highland Games: A one-day event on Saturday 6th December 2025. A fun opportunity to try some events associated with Scotland! This has been recently changed to a non-selection event to encourage all competitive and non-competitive athletes to participate.
- SBS Mini Multis (mini pentathlon): A two-day competition: Saturday 29th (pm) and Sunday 30th November (am). Individual athletes can enter up to 4 events per day and we will enter as many teams as possible in club relay teams.
- Colgate Games: South Island Colgate Games will take place in Nelson from 16-18 January 2026. As in years past we expect to have a large team participating and competing in this well-established festival of sport.
- Country Meet (Wānaka) – 7th February 2026
- Otago Championships: This is a weekend competition held at the Caledonian Ground: 21st (11 – 5pm) and 22nd March (1 – 4pm) 2026.
All interclub competitions at the weekend during the season are included in the registration fee. There are entry fees for the Colgate Games. If you would like more information about any of these please talk to a member of the committee.
Fees:
The fees include club and controlling organization memberships (Athletics Otago and Athletics New Zealand) for all athletes. For competing athletes, there is free loan of a club singlet, eligibility to compete at interclub competitions and the Colgate Games.
Race numbers will be issued for all competitive athletes at the first interclub competition in 2025.
| Competitive Athletes – 6yrs to 14yrs (Tuesday club nights and eligible for all competitions) | $104.00 |
| Non Competitive Club Athlete – 4-6 year olds (Tuesday club nights only) | $68.00 |
| Non Competitive Club Athlete – 7-14 years | $82.00 |
Trial period
If you are unsure about joining, the first Saturday meeting is a non-competition ‘Ribbon Day’ and generally the next Saturday morning competition can be tried on a 1-day registration at no charge. This year this is October 4th 9am to 12.30pm. We allow athletes to come to the first training night free before having to decide whether they wish to pursue athletics.
Parent help
We are an organisation run by volunteers, without parent help, we cannot function. Hill City-University is duty club at the shot put each Saturday and on competition day your help is required. We recommend coming out when your little athlete is competing and get to see the action first hand! No specific skills are needed, and training is given on the day.
Help is also expected of parents on Tuesday evening training nights. An outline of the roles is set out below for further information.
Other positions
Organising committee (the more the merrier) and team managers (Colgate Games).
If you are keen to be involved, we would love to hear from you! It does not matter if you don’t have experience in coaching, there are many different ways that you can help the club while supporting your own children and others. We can help fit you into a role and support you as you become more familiar with the club and activities.
Courses for parents
We encourage all parents to get involved in the smooth running of their children’s athletic programme. To improve your skills when assisting at various disciplines, courses are held through the year and are extremely worthwhile. To register or make enquiries, contact Athletics Otago:
Email athleticsotago@xtra.co.nz
Website athleticsotago.co.nz
The Run, Jump, Throw course is an ideal introduction for parents who would like to know more about what their children are doing. No previous skills or experience necessary to participate in these courses. Contact Athletics Otago for details on the next available course.
Discipline
The purpose of Tuesday evening is to provide a friendly and fun environment for coaching and training. It can be very difficult for coaches and parents thatb are helping, to deal with the misbehavior of children who are not their own.
If children misbehaves, they will be warned. If bad behaviour persists after a warning, the parents/caregiver will be advised, and will be expected to help – usually by assisting with the activities involving their child until the problem is resolved.
The disciplinary steps are:
- Warning
- Parents/caregiver advised
- Suspension from training for one week
- Asked to leave the club – no refunds
Health and wellbeing of your children
Please also note that at no time on Tuesday evenings and/or competition days are we actively babysitting/supervising your children. You are required to be present or have an assigned caregiver present. This is particularly important from a Health and Safety perspective as accidents do occur (although rarely) and occasionally training is abandoned due to bad weather.
Otago Children‘s Athletics Programme 2025-2026
Check out the full 2025/26 Children’s Season Program here:
KEY Dates:
| October | Saturday | 4 | Ribbon Day | Caledonian | 9-12.30 |
| Saturday | 11 | Have a Go Day! | Caledonian | 9-12.30 | |
| Saturday | 18 | 6-14’s Interclub | Caledonian | 9-12.30 | |
| Wednesday | 22 | 6-11’s Twilight meet | Caledonian | 5.30-7pm | |
| Thursday | 23 | 12-14’s Twilight Meet (with Seniors) | Caledonian | TBA | |
| Saturday | 25 | No Children’s meet Labour Weekend | |||
| November | Saturday | 1 | 6-14’s Interclub | Caledonian | 9-12.30 |
| Sunday | 2 | Development Squad Coaching Day 12-14’s | Caledonian Caledonian | 10-3pm | |
| Saturday | 8 | 6-14’s Interclub | Caledonian | 9-12.30 | |
| Saturday | 15 | Country Club Meet 6-14’s | Alexandra | 10-3pm | |
| Saturday | 22 | Grade 12-14’s Yvette Williams Meet with Seniors | Caledonian | TBA | |
| Sunday | 23 | 12-14’s Launch Athletics | Caledonian | TBA | |
| Sunday | 23 | 6-11’s Tyson Challenge | Invercargill | TBA | |
| Saturday | 29 | 6-14’s Mini Multis | Caledonian | 1-4pm | |
| Sunday | 30 | 6-14’s Mini Multis | Caledonian | 9-12.30 | |
| December | Saturday | 6 | 6-14’s Paape Highland Games | Caledonian Caledonian | 9-12pm |
| Saturday | 13 | 10-14’s Colgate’s Coaching Clinic | Caledonian | 9-10.30 |
Contacts
Email hillcitychildrens@gmail.com
Facebook www.facebook.com/HillcityCA
Hill City–University 