See you in Hokitika!
Following on from yesterday’s government announcement, we are excited to confirm that the 2022 Age Group Road National Championships scheduled to take place in Hokitika on 22 – 24 April 2022 will go ahead as planned.
In our earlier update on 11 March 2022, we outlined the conditions that would need to be in place to enable this event to go ahead. These were mainly based on the Covid Protection Framework (Traffic Light system) at the time with the main criteria requiring the country to be in Orange and the confidence to secure critical services.
While there was no immediate announcement of a move to Orange (noting that this will be reviewed on the 4th of April), the changes that the Government announced yesterday to the Red settings in the Traffic Light System (specifically in the removal of most restrictions for outdoor events) have indicated that the risk has reduced sufficiently for outdoor events and that the government are focussed on making life simpler and closer to ‘normal’. This along with commitments from our critical services, gives us the confidence that we needed to move forward.
We will continue to assess the risk for our stakeholders in terms of Covid-19 and put in place appropriate controls to support the wellbeing of all those connected with the event. We will publish our Covid-19 plan following the next government announcement on the 4th of April and encourage all those attending the event to continue to exercise personal responsibility and make decisions that both keep yourself safe but also others in the community and at the event. This includes staying at home if you are sick, testing if you are displaying symptoms, staying at home if you required to by government guidelines (through testing positive, waiting for a test result, if you are a house-hold contact or through any other reason that the government has outlined).
We hope that this update is widely celebrated. It certainly is by Cycling New Zealand and our host club Hokitika Cycling Club. The economic impact generated by you attending this event will significantly support the local community at large.
We thank those of you who have already entered and we encourage all of you to consider supporting the event and our host community, and to celebrate the achievements of our age group road riders.
Click here to enter – entries close on Sunday 10 April.