Hawke's Bay's Beamish targeting World Champs after credible finish

Geordie Beamish winning the International Mile during the 2021 Prefontaine Classic at Hayward Field on August 20, 2021 in Eugene, Oregon after running down a showboating US athlete. Photo / Getty

USA-based Hawke's Bay runner Geordie Beamish is turning his attention to the World Championships after a credible finish in the World Indoor Athletics Championships men's 3000 metres.

Beamish, from Havelock North, finished 10th in the final of the race held in the Serbian capital Belgrade early on Monday ( New Zealand time), which was won by favourite and Tokyo Olympic Games 10,000 metres gold medallist Selemon Barega, of Ethiopia.

Barega won in an unexpectedly slow time of 7:41:38 after 15 laps of the indoor stadium's 200m track.

Beamish, representing New Zealand at a world event for the first time, was 12th or 13th for most of the race and well outside a block of seven sprinting the last 200-metre lap to sort out the medals.

Beamish clocked 7:46:91 – more than seven seconds outside the New Zealand indoor record of 7:39:50 he ran in New York on January 29.

On December 4 last year, Beamish ran a New Zealand men's record outdoor 5000 metres in 13:12:53, and four months earlier won a mile race at the Prefontain Classic in Oregon in a personal best of 3:54:86.

That race was notable for Beamish turning for home and running down American runner Craig Engels, who was already engaging with the crowd with a celebratory wave.

Beamish is now expected to target the World Championships back in the US in Eugene, Oregon, and the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, in July and August.

Hawke's Bay Today files show Beamish winning the Hastings Primary Schools' 8yrs boys cross-country title in 2005.

Going to Whanganui Collegiate, he won the national secondary schools 3000m in 2013 and 2014 and, at the 2013 New Zealand championships, an Under 18 2000m steeplechase title.

Beamish also has three NZ Junior titles in the 1500m (2014, 2015) and 3000m (2015).

He obtained an athletics scholarship in the US and graduated in civil engineering from Northern Arizona University three years ago, along the way winning the NCAA mile championship in Birmingham, Alabama, in March 2019.

Beamish - the son of Hawke's Bay farmers Simon and Josi Beamish - had run second in a heat to qualify automatically for the final at the World Indoor Championships, and the up-and-coming international performer told media afterwards he'd been happy to run both rounds well.

New Zealand claimed two bronze medals in Belgrade with record-breaking performances, in an indication the country could be in for one of its bigger years in athletics around the world.

The medals went to South Canterbury thrower Tom Walsh with an Oceania record of 22.31m in the shot put, and Hamish Kerr smashed a national indoor high jump record which had stood for 39 years when he leapt 2.31m – each just a fortnight after retaining respective national titles at the New Zealand Track and Field Championships in Hastings.