2026 Australian Athletics Junior (Under Age) Championships

About

The 2026 Australian Athletics Junior Championships (U14-U20), will will bring together Australia’s most promising young athletes across the U14 to U20 age categories, for six days of National Competition in Brisbane, Queensland. 

Age Groups

Included age groups
- Under 14
- Under 15
- Under 15 Para Athletics
- Under 16
- Under 17
- Under 17 Para Athletics
- Under 18
- Under 20 (excluding combined events and walks*)
- Under 20 Para Athletics

* Under 20 combined events are with open in Sydney, the walks are in January in the ACT (as this competition clashes with World Teams Walking event).

Spectator Tickets

Tickets coming soon.

Please note Athletes and Accredited Coaches do not need to purchase a ticket.

Entries

Domestic Entries: All domestic entries are submitted via the State/Territory Associations. Please contact your state if you have questions.

International Entries: These will be accepted from all World Athletics Member Federation athletes. All athletes (other than from NZL), will need to provide a clearance from from their Member Federation. 

Entries will open soon.

Timetable

The draft timetable for the Junior (Under Age) Australian Athletics Championships is now available.

Following the feedback process from within the Australian Athletics community, the original draft TT for the 2026 Australian Athletics Junior (Under Age) Championships has been re-drafted. There will be no further changes (except in the case of typographical error) until the close of entries in March.

There were no submissions to change the proposed TT for the Para Events (for any age group), the Combined Events (for any age group), Under 14 events and only one in relation to Under 20. As a result, the timetabling for these events remains largely unchanged except where some small changes were made to accommodate the changes made to the remaining age groups. The following broad principle submissions were taken into account along with some other individual requests for change where these could be accommodated:

• AA has deviated from the original principle of trying to contain each age group (other than for Combined Events) within three day periods (to minimize the cost to travel families which is the most common request received about Nationals TTs). Therefore in respect of Under 17/18 and Under 15/16 the events are now spread over four days and in a couple of instances one or two events may be on a fifth day.
• The most common submissions related to the scheduling of the 400m and 800m in Under 17/18 and for full day rests between each of the events of 800m and longer in each age group.
• It appears that 400m and 800m is a more common double than in the past but it is noted that this cannot be considered exclusively without the impact on the traditional doubles of 100m/200m; 200m/400m; 400m/400mH and 800m/1500m and the consequential impact of trying to provide for those who might wish to also do any combinations of 1500m/2000mSC/3000m/3-5000mRW. We have reconfigured as best we could - so that the 800m heats are not scheduled until the end of day 2 - five hours after the nine athletes who will have made the 400m final will have competed. This also necessitated the rescheduling of the 1500m and longer events.
• In relation to the requests to provide full rest days between each possible combination of events of 800m and longer, this is not feasible. But based on entry numbers in each pair of events from recent Nationals, we have placed the events where there will be the least impact. We made changes where it was observed that where in order to keep these events in the cooler part of the days we had previously distance events in the same age at the end of one day and the beginning of the next. Always noting that these Championships are being staged in mid-April which even in Brisbane normally provides better competition conditions throughout most days.
• Most importantly we emphasise to athletes, coaches and families that they should not relying in any way on the original draft. Also please note that whilst from now on there will be no change of an event from one day to another (unless a round collapses), it remains quite possible depending on eventual entries that times will change or additional rounds added within a day. So it is important that plans are not made to arrive in Brisbane on the day of competition (in case of a rescheduled early start) nor to arrange departure from Brisbane until well after the end of the day’s competition (in case of an event being rescheduled to the end of the day or having to be re-held). Athlete travel arrangements to and from Perth in 2025 created a not insignificant number of problems in this regard.

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