Barden Park drew high praise from competitors, officials and spectators from all over NSW, including Athletics NSW board member and meeting manager for the Dubbo tournament Peter Higgins.

Higgins said the country championships could be back as soon as 2019 and said it would have his support.

“This venue as an athletics track is one of the best in NSW and we have to use it more,” he said.

“This tournament is often in places like Newcastle and Wollongong. We’ve already decided that in 2018 it will be in Wollongong but in 2019 I personally want it back here.”

It wasn’t just the facility that won Higgins over, it was also the welcoming attitude of locals and the number of people willing to volunteer.

“This place couldn’t be any better. The people are what stand out to me. We have had so many people willing to volunteer, there are cheery smiles on their faces and it’s just fantastic,” he said.

“The athletics has also been good. We had six country records broken over track and field. That’s pretty good when you get records broken at a new venue.

“But the people are really what made it, we couldn’t have asked for better.”

Dubbo’s World Championship runner Jane Fardell has been one of the driving forces behind bringing the carnival to Dubbo and she was delighted to see how it was received.

“We had a lot of things work in our favour. The weather wasn’t too hot, we had everyone really support it. Now they’ve seen it’s a great facility and it’s fantastic to see it being used at its full capacity,” she said.

“Dubbo Regional Council has gone above and beyond to make it all happen so that makes it even better and make it all worth.”

It wasn’t just the sport in the region that would benefit, she said, with an estimated 1500 people making the trip to Dubbo for the three days.

“I thought you could see the flow-on effects. There were a lot of people out shopping. It’s not just 500 athletes but they bring two other people with them, go out spending money and staying in hotels so the flow-on is massive,” she said.

“I think people realise that these type of carnivals are a great thing for Dubbo.”

Higgins said he thinks the city will be getting the opportunity to host a lot more events in the future.

“We’re called Athletics NSW, it’s not Athletics Sydney, and so we have to take more things to country. Dubbo is 11 out of 10,” he said.

“I’ve been the meeting manager for the whole show for the last three days and I’ve really enjoyed it.”

“I just think the venue is fantastic, the equipment is good, the people are fantastic, it’s exactly what you look for in community sport.