Cooks Gardens serves up another classic mile - Alec McNab

Stadium record-holder high-jumper Hamish Kerr was the meet’s leading athlete. Photos / Nat Kirk

As has happened so often in the past, the wind dropped in the minutes before the feature miles at the Pak’nSave Cooks Classic, and once again the milers delivered, cementing Cooks Gardens as the “home of the mile”.

The Classic drew a large number entries, including athletes from six countries. Prizes for event places were replaced by 15 major cash prizes for the leading athletes on World Athletics points through all events.

Stadium record-holder high-jumper Hamish Kerr was the meet’s leading athlete, who in three consecutive years from 2020 had set stadium records.

Urged on by the large gallery close to the high-jump event, Kerr jumped a season-best of 2.27m, narrowly failing at 2.30m for a new stadium record. Earlier, Hugo Jones set a personal best (2.07m) and Imogen Skelton won in the women’s event with a season’s best (1.80m).

Things did not look promising an hour before the pre-meet as the wind strengthened, blowing out one gazebo and lifting trackside signage - and by the 4pm start time, rain was added to the weather mix.

But that began to clear over the next 90 minutes, and by the start of the Cooks Classic programme at 6.45pm, Cooks Gardens was bathed in sunshine, with the wind easing to a stiff breeze. By mile time, it eased further.

The 31 entries for the men’s mile necessitated A and B races, and as ever on such occasions, there were disappointed athletes seeded in the B race with a point to prove.

Leading this group was New Zealand Secondary Schools champion Daniel Prescott who, as he did in the school championships, ran from the front and was rewarded with a personal best of 4m 07.27s, with Ben Bidois two seconds in arrears.

In the women’s event, Poppy Healey set the pace for the first 600m with pre-race favourites Rebekah Aitkenhead (nee Greene) and Laura Nagel.

The two rivals who had broken away from the rest of the field battled over the remaining kilometre and were never more than a metre apart, with Aitkenhead winning the sprint for home to winning by .04 of a second (4m 33.55s), earning both a second Heritage cap for running under 4m 36s (the women’s equivalent of fewer than four minutes for men).

Whanganui’s Daniel Sinclair set the pace for the men and took the field through to the 900m mark exactly on the pace requested. In a repeat of last year, Sam Tanner proved too strong for Australian Callum Davies.

Tanner should be pleased with his 3m 55.11s time for his season opener as he prepares for the Paris Olympics.

Tanner was second to Kerr on points (1152, 1135). Tanner joined Hamish Christensen and Sir John Walker with four miles under four minutes and is now one behind double Olympic 1500m medallist Nick Willis. Davies in second was the 77th sub-four-minute run on the iconic track.

The only stadium record of the evening came from Australian Jake Doran in the 100m who, with one of the few legal winds of the evening (exactly on 2.0m/second), broke Gus Nketia’s 24-year-old record, running on the back straight and taking advantage of an ability to run with the wind.

There was an international feel to the women’s javelin event, which was won by Sae Takemota (Japan, 54.47m), with Jona Algouy of France in second and Yuka Sato of Japan in third, while French athlete Felise Sosaia won the men’s javelin with a excellent 74.37m shot.

Nick Palmer, as expected, won the men’s shot and was relatively pleased with his 18.59m performance, while Natalia Rankin Chita won the women’s 15.12m.

The Thomson siblings Scott and Anna won the men’s and women’s triple jump events as expected (14.34m and 12.11m respectively).

Phoebe Edwards set a PB in the long jump of 5.82m, and Lewis Arthur won in the men’s (7.24m) - Masaki Tomooka had a busy day setting a personal best in second place (7.04m).

There was local success in the 400m hurdles when reigning New Zealand champion Jonathan Maples won with a pleasing season opener of 54.87s. The 400m sprint drew the largest number of entries, with athletes lured by the large handicap prize.

James Ford (Takapuna) won the elite men’s race (48.09s), with the in-form New Zealand international Portia Bing taking the women’s race with a season’s best of 53.73s.

Whanganui’s Thomas Gowan ran well for second in the second men’s C race (52.38s), with Damian Hodgson and Samu running personal bests of 53.59 and 53.61 to finish third and fourth in the handicap awards.

There was considerable local interest in the masters’ mile that concluded the pre-meet, with Nathan McKinlay taking gold at M35, Brendon Sharratt taking silver in the M40 division and Sally Gibbs continuing her collection of New Zealand Masters records with a new record in the W60 (5m 45.11s).