Hawke's Bay runner Geordie Beamish has smashed the New Zealand 3000 metres indoor record with a 7m 39.5s stunner in the US, clipping more than four-and-a-half seconds off the previous record set eight years ago.
On the team of On Athletics Club in Boulder, Colorado, Beamish, 25 and raised on a farm near Havelock North, blazed from 5th place entering the last of the 150m laps to win the race in the Milllrose Games at The Armory in New York on Friday night (US Eastern time).
The previous record was held by Olympian Zane Robertson (7m 44.16s, set in 2014) and the effort was Beamish's personal best indoors or outdoors – his best outdoors was 7m 42.39s in Italy last August.
The games have been good for Beamish, a New Zealand secondary schools champion while at Wanganui Collegiate who ran his first sub-four mile at the meet in 2020.
He's hoping for a spot at the World Indoor Championships in Seville, Spain, in March, based on a time of 13m 12.53s for the 5000 metres last year - the second-fasted 5000m run by a New Zealander in any forum.