NSW Country Championships: destination Dubbo

15 January 2026

NSW Country Championships: destination Dubbo

All roads this weekend lead to the NSW central western town of Dubbo, host of the 81st edition of the NSW Country Championships. It will be the third occasion Dubbo has hosted the championships. During the first six decades of the championships, all but twice, the championships were conducted in the city, but thanks to great facilities like we have in Dubbo, since 2001 only twice have the country championships not been held in the country.
 
The competition will be under the control of a large number of experienced NSW Athletics technical officials. The meeting manager will very adeptly be Katrina Morrow (nee Gibbs). As a teenager, Katrina was raised in a neighboring town, Merrygoen. Katrina would regularly make the two-hour round trip to Dubbo for training. As a 19-year-old, she would go on win the Commonwealth Games high jump title with a height of 1.93m. 

This year many of NSW’s finest country athletes will again be in action across the three-day championships. They will be led by rising 400m star Jemma Pollard (Newcastle Runners) who over the last two years has established herself as one of Australian leading 400m athletes. She has won two global 4x400m medals starting with silver in 2024 at the World Juniors, then bronze at the 2025 World Indoors Championships.

Another feature athletes will be Mudgee 15-year-old shot putter Mckayla Grobler – the only athlete to set an Australian record at the recent Australian All Schools Championships. Junior international Grace Krause (Temora) will race in the under-20 sprints, long jump and triple jump. Former NSW open 200m champion Bronte Carroll (Mingara) will race in her pet event, the 200m. Commonwealth Youth champion George Wells (Gosford) will competes in the open shot and discus. World Junior discus representative Chelsey Wayne, lines up in the junior shot and discus. In the U15s Charlottle James (Eastlakes) will tackle her usual enormous program competing in the 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m.

He may not have worn the green and gold, but Maitland pole vaulter Ben James is an extraordinary athlete as a 5.20m vaulter. However, he will have to squeeze in his own competition ambitions amongst coaching dozens and dozens of athletes.

Ernie Shankelton’s elite throwing squad will be out to shatter records. In addition to Mckayla Grobler, the squad includes a group of the very best hammer throwers in Australia, including Ky Garratt (U20, Cowra), Cooper Dabin (U18, Young) and Emily Thomas (open, Temora). Joining this fearsome group is another emerging talent, Alex Rice (Temora) in the U17 Hammer Throw. Savannah Auvaa (Bathurst), another squad member with Ernie, will compete in three throwing events – hammer, shot and discus.

Some other rising young stars to watch include: Lucy Jurd (Orange) U17 800m, Jenice Hicks (Macquarie Hunter) U16 100m, Zahli Fisher (Gosford) U16 Hammer Throw, Sidney Bartle (Athletics Wollongong) U16 Hammer Throw, Hamish Crittenden (Tamworth) U15 400m, Mack Oxley (Armidale) U15 3000m and Emma Shiels (Mingara) U14 800m.

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW
Image Ky Garratt (image courtesy of David Tarbotton)