The Oceania Athletics Association (more commonly known as Oceania Athletics) is the governing body for athletics in Oceania. It is one of the six Area Associations of the world's athletics governing body World Athletics. Oceania Athletics has 23 members (including 3 associate members) and is headquartered in the Gold Coast.
The OAA was founded as Oceania Amateur Athletic Organization (OAAA) on August 21, 1969, during a "Congress of the delegates of Member Countries of the Australasian Area" held in Port Moresby, then Territory of Papua and New Guinea, at the time of the 3rd South Pacific Games. Six out of the nine Member Federations attended (Australia, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, New Hebrides, now called Vanuatu, and Western Samoa, now Samoa). Fiji and New Zealand sent letters of support, while the Cook Islands were not represented. Observers from American Samoa, Solomon Islands, French Polynesia, Guam and New Caledonia also attended.[1]
From this Congress a Committee of four members (non-elected) was formed to set up a draft of rules for the new Association, whose name today is Oceania Athletics Association. These members were: Arthur Hodsdon (Australia) as Chairman, Clive Lee (Australia), James Dunn (Papua New Guinea) and an unnamed New Zealander. From that year onwards the Association has been elected by Member Federations. The name was changed to Oceania Athletics Association (OAA) in February 2007.[2]
Oceania Athletics' governance is split between the main bodies:[3]
Oceania Athletics now has 20 members and 3 associate members. Each member gets one vote at the Congress.[3]
A modification of Article 4.2 of World Athletics constitution set new rules limiting its membership as follows: "The national governing body for Athletics in any Country or Territory shall be eligible for Membership. Members that represented Territories on 31 December 2005 shall continue to be Members. No new Territories shall be admitted to the Membership."[4]
As a consequence, the OAA made constitutional amendments[5] to its Article 2.5, introducing an associate membership to allow territories like New Caledonia, Niue, and Wallis and Futuna to participate officially "in OAA activities, including area and regional competitions".[6] This also applies for Tokelau, where the first athletics event ever took place recently.[7]
In 2008, New Caledonia became the first associate member,[2][8] Niue followed in 2009.[2]
The current president of the association, Robin Sapong Eugenios (Northern Marianas) was firstly elected in December 2019 at the OAA Special Congress.
The OAA holds the following championships:
Moreover, the following regional championships were organized:
In 2011, a new regional concept was introduced, and the three regional championships and the Oceania Championships were unified to the Oceania Regional (or Area) Championships, or simply again Oceania Championships. Two regions "East" and "West" were classified. Athletes from the two regions may compete together at the championships, but results will be separated for rankings purposes, and medals are awarded separately.
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