CHASE
YOUR
5k GOAL

Night of Fives 2025 continues it Partnership with Athletics Tasmania to deliver the unique 60m State Championship of Tasmania.

This years event will see Olympian and OVA athlete, Jacob Despard, compete as he fine tunes his preparations for the Australian Domestic Circuit.

Entires will be via Athletics Tasmania's website - more information to come.

OVA Southern Saints Athletics Club (OVA) and Knockoffs Run Club (KORC) have developed a fantastic new athletics event held in Hobart annually.

Our event 

The event is the Night of Fives athletics meet, which involves a series of graded running races over 5000 m, held at the Domain Athletics Centre. The night culminates in the men’s and women’s Athletics Tasmania Championships for 5000m. Our next event is scheduled for 18 January 2025.  

The event had 120 starters last year, from ages 15 to 50-odd, across 6 races. See event summary at Green lands knockout blow in epic final | Knockoffs Run Club. The aim is to grow the Night of Fives to 200+ competitors this year, which would likely bring in 1000 people to the Domain over the evening. 

The concept 

The Night of Fives event is aimed at bridging the gap between competitive athletics, recreational running and fun running. It differs from the Point to Pub, Point to Pinnacle or Cadbury Marathon where serious training is required to run these extremes. It is different to your typical interclub athletics. The Night of Fives is bringing to athletics what Big Bash has brought to cricket. The other reality is fun-runs are getting very expensive to enter, up to $130 per entrant in some cases, which is often prohibitive for families. We intend for the Night of Five entry fees to remain below $20. 

How Night of Fives is different

Unlike fun runs or park-run, that are typically held in the early morning and often with start and finish in different places, the Night of Fives is held on a warm summer evening on the track. This allows for a great crowd atmosphere with a DJ, Food-trucks, coffee vans and a track-side licenced bar, plus live commentary for the whole race. 

This year we will introduce a teams 5000m relays, where teams of four will run the 5000m race in 400 m intervals. The unique relay concept is serious athletes might go up against football players, football umpires, corporate or school teams with each athlete running 400 m at a time then having a few minutes break before needing to go again. 

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In order to open up the Night of Fives to a broader range of competitors, we will hold a 5000m relay as per the following:‍
●Teams must consist of 4 athletes.
● The first runner must run 600 m for the first leg then the baton will be changed at every
400 m after that (i.e. at the finish line), meaning the first runner will run 1 x 600 m and 2 x
400 m. The three other runners will run 3 x 400 m. The rests between legs is the time it
takes for the other three runners to run their 400m intervals.
● Runners need to stay in leg order. i.e. the first runner runs the 5th and 9th legs, the
second runner runs the 6th and 10th legs etc.
● Age limitation: > 11 years on day of race.
● Teams may be a mix of male and female
● Entry $40 per team
There will be categories, with prizes TBC.
● First male team
● First female team
● First mixed team (2 male / 2 female)

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How to enter

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● https://www.nightoffives.com.au/
● One person (team captain) enters and pays the $40. Up to the team captain to get
reimbursed.
● Entry requires all 4 names to be entered at that admin building one hour before the race.

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How fast can your team go?

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● Men’s 5000 m world record – 12.35 (= 60.5 sec per 400 m)
● Australian men’s 5000 m record – 12.55 (= 62 sec per 400 m)
● Tasmanian men’s record – 12.56 (= 62 sec per 400 m)
● Women’s 5000 m world record – 14:00 (= 67 secs per 400 m)
● Australian women’s 5000 m record – 14.41 (= 70.5 sec per 400 m)
● Night of Fives men’s 5000 m record - 14.45 (=71 sec per 400 m)
● Tasmanian women’s 5000 m record - 15.13 (= 73 sec per 400 m)
● Night of Fives women’s record – 16.07 (= 77 sec per 400 m)

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