Athletics: Brilliant fifth place for ex-Whanganui runner Beamish in steeplechase at world champs

Geordie Beamish sits and contemplates his result after finishing fifth in the 3000m steeplechase at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest. Photo / Hannah Peters - Getty

By the time this week’s Insight appears in the Whanganui Chronicle the result of George Beamish’s World Athletics 3000 metre steeplechase final will be known. Beamish, who qualified second in his steeplechase heat at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, is only the third Whanganui athlete to run in a global track and field final.

He follows in the footsteps of two other Whanganui Club athletes who have reached global finals - Arthur Porritt who finished third in the Paris 1924 Olympic 100m final and Tony Polhill who ran in the 1972 Olympic 1500 metre final, finishing ninth. There have been cyclists such as Gary Anderson (Olympic bronze) who were members of the old joint Athletic and Cycling Club, or track and field athletes like Lucy Oliver (nee van Dalen ) 2012 and 2016 Olympics, who have been in New Zealand teams at global championships.

Polhill and Beamish were both boarders at Whanganui Collegiate while Porritt was raised in Whanganui. Beamish, like his Budapest teammate Brad Mathas mentioned last week, has retained his Athletics Wanganui membership.

Beamish first wore the black singlet in 2013 when he ran for the New Zealand Secondary Schools Cross Country Team in Launceston, Tasmania. He was again selected in his final school year (2014) when he crossed the Tasman as New Zealand Secondary Schools Cross Country champion. He went on to a scholarship to Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. Beamish ran in last year’s World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, and in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham when he finished sixth in the 5000m. He is now a member of the strong On Track professional team. This is his rookie season as a steeplechaser. He broke the 39-year-old Oceania and New Zealand record for the 3000m steeplechase in Monaco in July and has now taken the next step in an exciting career.

Whanganui Collegiate athletes (from left) Daniel Sinclair, Amy McHardy and Toby Caro before their trip to the Australian Cross Country Championships. Photo / Rob van Dort

Three Whanganui Collegiate cross country runners, Daniel Sinclair, Toby Caro and Amy McHardy, follow in Beamish’s footsteps on Thursday when they cross the Tasman to represent New Zealand Secondary Schools at the Australian Cross Country in Canberra.

Sinclair and McHardy were in last year’s team while Caro has been selected for the first time. McHardy and Caro were not original selections and have come in as replacements and will firmly grasp the opportunity. They all had an impressive workout at Virginia Lake at the weekend and all three ran large personal bests on the club 2km road course on Tuesday, with Sinclair nudging under the course record. A week earlier he took 20 seconds off his parkrun personal best, running the riverbank 5km in 15 minutes 20 seconds, confirming he is in good form.

The Whanganui trio join 22 other runners from throughout New Zealand. Whanganui Collegiate and Wellington Girls College both have three members in the team. The McHardy family has twins running, with Amy (Whanganui Collegiate School) and sister Kate (Wellington Girls College). Auckland Grammar School and Tauranga Boys have two members each. The team has runners from as far south as Southland and Otago, and from Whangarei in the north and Havelock North in the east so is a true representation of the whole country.

Whanganui has had more than one team member on many occasions. Whanganui Collegiate School had three in last year’s team and has on many other occasions had multiple team members. Whanganui, as a city, had its best ever representation in 2019 in Wollongong with five in the team of 24. Whanganui Collegiate athletes Liam Back, Andres Hernandez, George and Sarah Lambert were joined by Rebecca Baker from Whanganui High School. The first two are currently on United States scholarships.

I should be in Sydney when this column goes to press. I am taking a day trip from Sydney to Canberra on Saturday to see the Australian Cross Country which I will report on next week. My only regret is that the World Athletics Championships evening sessions, with the different Australian time zones, are televised very early in the morning. I have all sessions recorded but it is not quite the same as watching as it happens.

The first three days in Budapest have been sensational and we are constantly reminded about the small margins in international sport. Tom Walsh in finishing fourth in the shot only missed a podium place by 7cm and sprinter Zoe Hobbs missed a global final by one-hundredth of a second. One year out from the Olympics, Hobbs’ move from14th last year in Eugene to 10th this year, in an era with so many outstanding female sprinters, is a very positive upward step.