Athletics New Zealand faces an uneasy wait after being shut out of Sports Minister Murray McCully's investigation into its errors at the London Olympics.

Chief executive Scott Newman said it was “premature” to discuss whether responsibility for managing Kiwi track and field athletes at the Olympics could be stripped from his organisation following basic administrative mistakes during the London 2012 campaign.

But he confirmed Athletics NZ, which was largely responsible for the blunders that plagued the campaign of Olympic gold medallist Valerie Adams, had not been invited to contribute to McCully's inquiry.

The Sunday Star-Times understands three senior administrators were summoned by McCully for the investigation: New Zealand Olympic Committee president Mike Stanley, NZOC secretary general Kereyn Smith and High Performance Sport New Zealand boss Alex Baumann.

Nick Cowan, Valerie Adams' manager, has also been part of the process.

Newman laughed before responding to questioning over his organisation's responsibility for issues such as Adams being left off the Olympic start list until the eve of competition.

Asked if Athletics NZ had yet apologised to Adams, Newman said his organisation was awaiting the findings of McCully's investigation before taking action, if any.

“If there's outcomes from that [McCully] meeting or review which are relevant to Athletics NZ then I'm sure we'll be made aware of what they are and we'll be brought into the mix on that basis,” Newman told the Star-Times.

“We as an NSO [National Sports Organisation] have responsibilities around athlete preparation and support services and the NZOC has responsibility around the greater team and the greater being.

“We have varying responsibilities [but] we're different organisations, so it's whoever is the relevant party for whatever factor," Newman said.

“Until we go through the review and have discussions I can't comment."

Following the Beehive meeting, McCully expressed confidence that "the sector will step up and show some leadership” for the 2016 Rio Olympics.

He previously criticised Athletics NZ's ability to cater for professional athletes and said "lessons will be heeded" from his inquiry.

- © Fairfax NZ News