Sam Tanner trims PB, again; George Beamish sets new 3000m record

Sam Tanner. Photo / Photosport

Tauranga runner Sam Tanner has beaten his personal best at the Millrose Games in New York, just a week after doing the same in Boston.

George Beamish also set a stunning national 3000-metre record.

In the showcase Wanamaker Mile on Sunday, Tanner trimmed 1.15 seconds from his personal best after running a patient race for a time of 3 minutes and 51.7 seconds.

The 22-year-old Athletics Tauranga athlete sat sixth or seventh for much of the race before strongly finishing over the final two laps to sprint home and claim fourth.

Nick Willis holds the New Zealand Indoor mile record of 3:51.06 recorded in New York in 2016.

On February 6, just eight days after setting a new personal best, Tanner recorded a new personal best at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston to become the third-faster miler in New Zealand history.

Race winner Yared Nuguse won on Sunday in a dazzling time of 3:47.38, and in the process set a Wanamaker Mile and United States national record.

The Wanamaker Mile has been taking place for nearly a century.

It was named in honour of Rodman Wanamaker, owner of the Wanamaker department store.

Employees of its New York branch organised the first Millrose Games in 1908 and in the early days, the signature race was 1.5 miles (2.4km) before being shortened to 1 mile (1.6km) in 1926.

Meanwhile, Beamish, 26, finished sixth in the 3000m with a time of 7:36.22 to take 3.28 seconds from the indoor New Zealand record that he set at the same meeting last year.

It was also quicker than Willis’ national outdoor record of 7:36.91, set in 2014, to ensure Beamish banked the absolute New Zealand 3000m record.