Oceania Athletics Championships

The Oceania Area Championships in Athletics is an athletics event run by the Oceania Athletics Association which is held every year. In 1990 the Oceania Athletic Championships started as an area championships for the IAAF member countries of Oceania. Initially conceived as a quadrennial event, the championships change to a biennial format in 1996. The event had junior events until a merger with the Oceania Youth Championships occurred in 2000. Both senior and youth events are now held at the championships in a unified competition. Athletics New Zealand and Athletics Australia generally send weakened teams due to the small size of the other competing nations.

After the year 2010, there were significant changes in the format of the competition being now held as Oceania Area Championships.

In the year 2011, the sub-regional Melanesian, Micronesian, and Polynesian Championships were replaced by the new Oceania Regional Championships, using the new "East–West" format. Medals are now awarded for athletes from both the Eastern and the Western Region by separating the results correspondingly (see here for the regional classification). From 2012 on, the format was also adopted for the Oceania Championships with a name change to Oceania Area Championships (resulting in doubling the number of medals), now being held annually.

Between 2000 and 2009, sub-regional championships were held for three regions.

 Australia,  Fiji,  New Caledonia,  Norfolk Island,  Papua New Guinea,  Solomon Islands, and  Vanuatu competed for the Melanesian Championships.

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