Smoke, heat, dust all contribute to planned Athletics Carnival move

The New Year Athletics Carnival, traditionally held in Dubbo sometime in January, isn't expected to return at the same time in 2020 due to the organisers concerns surrounding a number of issues.

Despite the event being considered a smash-hit in early January, the New Year Athletics Carnival isn't likely to return until at least May next year, according to organisers.

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The Athletics NSW sanctioned event packed out Barden Park with a huge crowd of competitors early on in this year, but Dubbo Athletics president Tim Ferraro doesn't expect the carnival to return to the early year time-slot anytime in the near future.

"There is no 'New Year' carnival this year and probably for good," Ferraro said.

Ferraro said that one of the primary reasons for the move was in order to ensure the cleanest, safest conditions for competitors, given the number of sporting events that have been forced to cancel due to air quality and heat concerns.

The move will also hopefully open the event up to even more competitors, due to the former schedule conflicting with a number of events in Sydney.

"We've moved it to May to get away from the heat, dust and smoke and also away from competing events in Sydney."

Ferraro says air quality became a concern after the club's regularly scheduled Friday night meetings met with cancellations due to low air quality forcing them to be abandoned.

"We've had to cancel a few of our regular Friday night competitions because of air quality issues."

While the event this year drew competitors from across the state between the juniors ages all the way up to the elderly, it was also the first to be officially sanctioned by the NSW Athletics governing body and offered the opportunity for athletes to qualify for state competitions later in the year.

While the Country and Region Championships are still expected to take place in late January and early February at Barden Park, it's not yet clear how the shift will impact those looking to qualify through the New Year Athletics Carnival for the Dubbo Club Championships and the State Championships to be held in March in Homebush.

Many of those events will feature athletes who qualified through the Western Zone Championships held at Barden Park in late November of this year.

The Country Championships will take place on the January 17 - 18 weekend in 2020, while the Region Championships will occur on February 1 - 2.

The final three weeks of competition in the Dubbo Athletics Club Championships will occur over February 21, February 28 and March 6 in early 2020.