The last 15 months has seen major change within Oceania Masters Athletics (OMA), including a mostly new elected Council.
At a Special General Meeting of OMA in Nadi, Fiji, in May 2023, a motion was carried that OMA become a commission of Oceania Athletics Association (OAA). This occurred in February 2024, with OAA formally establishing a masters athletes commission. A number of OMA’s Council members were appointed members of the new commission.
However, World Masters Athletics (WMA) advised its position that OMA needed to remain an autonomous association in order for it to be sanctioned by WMA as the governing body, for masters athletics in the Oceania region.
To ensure the continuation of OMA, Australia decided to put forward nominees for positions to be elected at OMA’s Annual General Meeting, held in Suva, Fiji, in June this year.
As it transpired, island federation members of OMA – with the exception of the Cook Islands – did not submit nominations for positions on OMA’s Council, nor did they attend the AGM. Treasurer Stewart Foster from New Zealand was the only existing member of the OMA Council to be nominated for re-election at the AGM.
As a result, seven new members were elected to the eight-person Council, six of them nominated by Australia. These members are:
- President – Cameron Burrows
- Vice-President – Jill Taylor
- Secretary – Joe Begley
- Councillors – Suzie Gaynor, Jayne Hardy, Andrew Watts
The two other Council members are Stewart Foster, re-elected as Treasurer, and former OMA president David Lobb, of the Cook Islands, who was elected as a Councillor.
President Cameron Burrows says the focus of the new Council is, after a period of upheaval and uncertainty, to get OMA operating as a viable, reinvigorated body. One of its priorities will be to make a decision on staging an Oceania Masters Championships in the second half of 2025, so that these two-yearly championships are again held in the alternate year to the WMA outdoor titles. The Council will also examine how OMA can best respond to the needs, interests and concerns of its member countries in terms of their participation in masters athletics.
OMA’s website is in the process of being re-established after being deactivated for a period of time – so watch this space for updates!