New Zealand Schools cross-country international Daniel Sinclair won the under-20 mile at the Capital Classic, returning from injury and Covid. Photo / Nat Kirk
On a beautiful, sunny Wellington evening, the curtain came down on the successful Classic series of lower North Island track and field meets.
The series had started 13 days earlier with the Potts Classic in Hastings, moving west to Cooks Gardens and ending in Wellington last Friday.
The sunshine was welcome after the wet weather throughout the North Island, including the very damp Cooks Classic. There was some irony in that the 2022 Pak‘nSave Cooks Classic was held in perfect conditions but without spectators due to Covid-19 regulations. This year we had spectators but miserable conditions that clearly deterred many. They missed a wonderful evening of athletics and some outstanding performances.
Tom Walsh found those few centimetres missing from Cooks Gardens on the dry Newtown circle on Friday, setting a Capital Meet record of 21.21m, 12cm more than at Cooks Gardens six days earlier when he fell tantalisingly 2cm shy of our record.
Laura Nagel and Julian Oakley won their respective New Zealand 3000m titles with excellent performances (9:19.18 and 7:56.49 respectively). Both runners, unfortunately, had to miss the Whanganui event and demonstrated that, had they competed at Cooks, they would almost certainly have added two more names to the Cooks Gardens Honours Board.
Whanganui athletes had a good evening at the Capital Classic. Maggie Jones, running for New Zealand Secondary Schools, was second in the Challenger series, running 14.69 for her 100m hurdles into a slight headwind. Fellow New Zealand Secondary Schools member, Whanganui race walker Lucas Martin, had to settle for second in the 3000m race walk after an epic battle with New Zealand Schools teammate Jonah Cropp. Martin should be pleased with his 12:51.93 time backing up a very fast mile walk at the Sir Peter Snell Challenge.
The third New Zealand Schools representative, Louise Brabyn, returning from injury, finished third in the under-20 mile while her Whanganui teammate Daniel Sinclair won the male under-20 mile by nearly seven seconds, a confidence boost after injury and health concerns. Sinclair’s cousin James Hercus won the men’s B 800m with another sub-2-minute performance (1:58.66), narrowly edging out clubmate Travis Bayler. Former Whanganui athlete Lexi Maples made it three second places in consecutive Classic Meets in the hammer and finally took the top place on the podium the following day at the Sola Power Meeting.
Last week in writing on “The home of the mile” I had space to mention only leading senior mile athletes. The under-20 championships had some outstanding performances from young athletes, many wearing the New Zealand Secondary Schools black singlet.
The junior women’s mile (under 20) was won by Boh Richie from St Peter’s School, Cambridge, who has struck a rich vein of good form. The diminutive Richie outsprinted NZSS teammate Emma Fergusson (Nga Tawa). Less than a second separated the two with Richie stopping the clock in 4:47.07. In the male under-20 event, Alfie Steadman from Auckland representing New Zealand Secondary Schools won from Elliot Pugh (Tauranga), running 4:09.96 and 4:11.02 respectively, two excellent performances.
In the main mile, three young New Zealand Schools representatives demonstrated that we have a great crop of young milers waiting in the wings to join the Cooks Gardens sub-4-minute club. Karsen Vesty finished sixth in 4:04.24 with his NZ Schools teammates William Johnston eighth in 4:06.11, just a tenth of a second ahead of Christian de Vaal in ninth (4:06.21). We have an exciting group of young runners who we can look forward to welcoming back to the home of the mile in the years ahead.
The golf Masters Tournament is held annually at Augusta, Georgia, and, while the mile will continue to feature at the Cooks Classic, it would be great in light of the history and heritage of the track, including a record 75 sub-4-minute miles, that Cooks Gardens also becomes the home of the Mile Championship.
Twenty-two-year-old Sam Tanner flew out to the United States four days after the Cooks Classic, making an immediate impact. He was second at the weekend, becoming the third-fastest New Zealander in the mile when he finished second in Boston Indoors, recording 3:52.89. He now has only two Kiwi greats ahead of him — John Walker and Nick Willis.
Tanner was not the only world-class athlete to shine just days after performances in the rain at Cooks Gardens. High jumper Hamish Kerr won in the Czech Republic, jumping 2.3m, only 1cm below his New Zealand record.
We are fortunate to have seen world-class athletes in action here in Whanganui. We hope for sunshine and a big crowd when the Pak’nSave Cooks Classic returns in 2024.