Athletics Insight: Whanganui hosts Pak’nSave Cooks Classic with 300 athletes competing

Paris Olympic Para gold medal winner Anna Grimaldi will start in the 100m at the Pak'nSave Cooks Classic. Photo / OIS, Adrian Dennis

Three hundred athletes from seven countries are in Whanganui for two hours of track and field action at the Pak’nSave Cooks Classic on Saturday.

What to expect and when

Pre-Meet 4pm

17 men and women contest the long jump.

11 men and women in action in the javelin.

A classy women’s high jump field including Australian Toby Stolberg.

New Zealand Masters Mile Championships featuring Whanganui’s world-class Sally Gibbs.

Cooks Classic main programme highlights

7.05pm Men’s World Athletics Bronze high jump featuring Olympic and world indoor champion Hamish Kerr. Can Kerr break his own stadium record?

7.05pm Women’s World Athletics Bronze hammer. Welcome back New Zealand double Olympian and stadium record holder Lauren Bruce and our own Lexi Maples, now based in Los Angeles.

7.10pm Our fastest kids in action in the “Fastest Kid on the Block”.

7.30pm Men’s 400m hurdles. All of last year’s top five New Zealanders, including our own top-ranked Jono Maples, and also Nat Kirk. Whanganui High School New Zealand Secondary Schools champion Damian Hodgson, representing NZ Schools, starts in this strong hurdle race.

7.45pm Sprint action - men’s and women’s 100m. Including a Whanganui welcome to Olympic Para gold medal winner Anna Grimaldi.

8pm Triple jump New Zealand Junior World Champion and New Zealand senior record holder, South Africa-based Ethan Olivier heads a strong field with action close to spectators.

8.10pm The first of three mile races of the record 45 entries to contest the NZ Mile Championships, a Bronze World Athletics event.

8.25pm 400m elite races for men and women, with a third mixed heat, all competing for the handicap dollars.

8.45pm Arguably the strongest women’s mile run in New Zealand - 22 contesting the New Zealand Mile Championship in the World Athletics Bronze mile. An international field, including Australian, American and Japanese athletes, is joined by a large group of New Zealand athletes headed by Vancouver-based Alison Andrews-Paul. World-ranked Linden Hall (Australia) heads a field that should set a new Cooks Gardens stadium record.

9pm The New Zealand Men’s Mile Championship and World Athletics Bronze event. Can Sam Tanner make it three in a row? Can he join Nick Willis as a five-time Cooks Gardens sub-4 miler? Can Para world record holder Jaryd Clifford join the sub-4-minute roll of honour? Will the 77 sub-4-minute miles be added to?