The national surf life saving champs at Ōhope Beach near Whakatāne have been cancelled due to COVID-19.
The event, which attracts more than 1500 competitors, was due to take place next week from March 11th t o14th.
Surf Life Saving New Zealand chief executive Paul Dalton says the decision to cancel the event at "heartbreaking."
It's the third major surf life saving competition to be called off due to the pandemic.
"The decision on whether or not to cancel this event was incredibly difficult, but in the end we had to put the safety of our Surf Lifesaving community members - and the wider community - first," said Dalton.
"This is such an important event within Surf Lifesaving - we get competitors as young as 14, right up to Masters who have lost track of the number of TSB Nationals they've attended."
Over 1500 competitors were due to compete at the National Surf Life Saving Championships in the Bay of Plenty. Photo: Supplied: SLSNZ
Dalton said advice provided by the government's COVID-19 Response Team indicated that an early announcement of any changes in Alert Levels after Saturday 6th March would not occur, meaning SLSNZ had to make its decision before the Government announcement later in the week to give certainty to its membership and give them the best chance of recovering refunds for travel and accommodation.
"Our best guess is that Auckland will still be at Alert Level 2 for all of next week," he said.
If that is the case, SLSNZ would be forced to exclude Auckland-based competitors, supporters and event support personnel from the event, as Alert Level 2 does not allow for them to take part in mass gatherings of more than 100 people.
"If Aucklanders were to be excluded, it would no longer be a true 'national championships' and there would be significant operational capacity and capability issues that would impact the safety and effectiveness of delivering an alternative event, many of which could not be mitigated, especially at short notice.
"For instance, half of our Water Safety personnel and 90% of our First Aid personnel would have been unable to attend - not to mention many of the event organisation team and more than a quarter of competitors."
Dalton said as an organisation primarily focussed on safety and wellbeing, SLSNZ also needed to consider the wider public good as well as their own goals.
"With people coming from all over the county it would be an ideal 'super-spreader' event if anyone attending did turn out to be infected".
Next year's national champs are due to be held in Christchurch.
-RNZ
