Athletics: Whanganui's Cooks Gardens still a world-class facility

Cooks Gardens was awarded a World Athletics Heritage Plaque this year. Photo / Supplied

"Well, well, well. Who would believe Cooks got their Heritage Plaque before the Boston Marathon and the Penn Relays?"

On receiving this email from Russell Sears, of Sports Heritage Trust Whanganui, regarding the World Athletic Heritage Plaque awarded to Cooks Gardens in January, I was reminded that my review of the season had highlighted athletes and their achievements but had omitted to mention this prestigious World Athletics award or the successful Pak'nSave Cooks Classic. The Classic followed the award announcement by three days on Sunday, January 30. The Classic and the New Zealand Mile Championship celebrated the 60th anniversary of Sir Peter Snell's world record at the iconic venue.

The World Athletics Heritage Plaque recognition is awarded for "an outstanding contribution to the worldwide history and development of the sport of track and field athletics and of out of stadia athletics disciplines such as cross-country, mountain, road, trail and ultra-running, and race walking".

The award is made by World Athletics, the sport's governing body. The plaque programme was inaugurated by World Athletics president Sebastian Coe on December 2, 2018, and the award to Cooks Gardens was just the 72nd such award and, as Sears indicated in his email, was made ahead of two prestigious events - the Penn Relays and the Boston Marathon. They have very recently been awarded their heritage plaques.

Cooks Gardens, dubbed The Home of the Mile, emerged on the global stage thanks to Snell's world mile record there 60 years ago. His time of 3 minutes 54 seconds is a staggeringly fast time to run on a grass track even today. The award commemorated the 60th anniversary of the first of Peter Snell's mile world records. The illustrious career of New Zealand's triple Olympic champion was honoured with the World Athletics Heritage Plaque in the posthumous category of Legend.

The plaque jointly recognises Cooks Gardens, whose grass track was the venue for Snell's 3:54.4 run, which, on January 27, 1962, took one-tenth of a second off Herb Elliott's world record. Cooks Gardens, which, since 1992, has had a synthetic track, boasts a distinguished history as a venue of outstanding middle-distance performances and received the plaque in the category of Landmark.

When the award was announced, Whanganui Mayor Hamish McDouall said he was filled with pride.

"This plaque honours not just a famous event of 60 years ago, but also Cooks Gardens as a premier sports venue with a long history. It also honours Whanganui, which has such a deep sporting heritage. On behalf of the district, I want to thank everybody who worked hard to obtain this award - but also everybody who has worked to make Cooks such an incredible facility capable of hosting international events."

The organisers of this year's Cooks Classic were set huge and unprecedented pressures in hosting the event. The country went from the Covid-19 orange traffic light setting to red just six days prior to the event.

Cancellation was quickly ruled out as organisers hastily reorganised the meeting into three competition bubbles with intervals between each to keep within the 100-person limit in place at the time. Similar arrangements became the norm through the rest of the season, but the Cooks Classic had less than a week to put it into place.

The week provided massive challenges and long hours, adapting to a whole raft of new and ever-changing requirements. The problems were overcome and the Cooks Classic was well received by athletes who produced some outstanding performances including seven stadium records. The conditions were excellent but the missing ingredient was spectators. The red protocols meant the Classic had, sadly, to be held without spectators, leaving the livestream as the only means of following the action on the track.

Sports Heritage Whanganui presented the draft report on the Cooks Classic to Athletics Whanganui this week, noting that, thanks to the efforts of all and generous support from sponsors and other organisations, the Classic was just able to break even. Local interest, thanks to the promotion of the event throughout January helped by the generous support of Whanganui and Partners, meant interest was high and a large crowd had been expected. The resultant loss of revenue from the non-spectator event was significant.

Cooks Gardens has gained international recognition and is not only the Home of the Mile but the home of Athletics Wanganui. We are fortunate to be based at this iconic world-class facility and are hugely appreciative. The club and the city must never take the venue for granted.