[2] The early years of the meet served as a colonial competition for the British dominion.

[3] The competition programme features a total of 36 individual New Zealand Championship athletics events, 18 for men and 18 for women.

Track races were contested over imperial distances until metric standardisation in 1970.

[2] The 3000 metres distance was incorporated into the main track and field championships from 1989 up to 2005 for men and from 1976 to 2005 for women.

The inclusion of triple jump in 1988 boosted the women's jumps programme and the addition of both hammer throw and pole vault in 1992 brought the women's field events to parity with the men.