Athletics: Sub-four-minute mile for Havelock North runner Karsen Vesty in the US

Former Havelock North High School student Karsen Vesty, who ran a sub-four minute mile in the US at the weekend, pictured running for Boston University earlier this year. Photo / Boston University Athletics

Former Havelock North High School athlete Karsen Vesty has become the 52nd New Zealander to run a sub-four minute mile.

The 3m 59.36s run came at the Boston University Track and Tennis Centre in the US on Sunday.

Finishing 11th in a field where all 11 finishers broke the barrier, the 21-year-old’s previous best was 4m 0.55s, also run in Boston, last February.

Remarkably, the mile at the Sharon Colyear-Danvile Season Opener finished with all 11 runners going under four minutes, Vesty finishing 11th and becoming at least the seventh runner from Hawke’s Bay to run a sub-four-minute mile.

“It was definitely a big goal,” he told Hawke’s Bay Today. “But I tried not to focus on it and just think more about racing and executing a good race.”

But there’s no break looming back home with the family as he prepares for another big year.

“I’m going to Colorado with some friends to go and train at altitude for Christmas,” he said.

The race was won by fellow New Zealander James Harding, a former Counties Manukau runner, now with the University of Oregon and running 3m 55.91s in what was also his first sub-four mile.

Son of former New Zealand cycling ace Brendan Vesty, Karsen Vesty took to running at the Hastings Athletics Club, where he was trained by former Commonwealth Games runner Richard Potts.

On Saturday, Potts was the lap-keeper as his own national secondary schools’ championships Senior Boys 1500m record, set in 1989, was broken by 16-year-old Tauranga sensation Sam Ruthe, running 3m 38.62s.

Vesty’s best for the 1500m is 3m 40.21s, run in the US last March (the mile is 1609.344m).

He enrolled at Boston University College of Engineering three years ago, signing off his New Zealand schools career by winning the Senior Boys’ 1500m and 3000m at the 2022 New Zealand Secondary Schools track and field championships in Inglewood, running the 1500m in 3m 51.33s as inclement weather thwarted his own attempt on the Potts record.

Other athletes from Hawke’s Bay who have run sub-four miles are (with their first four-minute mile in brackets): Tony Polhill (3m 57s, England, 1972), Richard Potts (3m 59.8s, Christchurch, 1993), Hamish Christensen (3m 58.06s, Whanganui, 1997), Gareth Hyett (3m 59.8s, Whanganui, 2006) Eric Speakman (3m 57.3s, Whanganui, 2016), Geordie Beamish (3m 56.9s, New York, 2020).

Doug Laing is a Hawke’s Bay Today reporter, based in Napier, with more than four decades in Hawke’s Bay in a news career of over 50 years, covering most aspects of news and sports.