Great weather, big crowds combine for enthralling 2025 Cooks Classic athletics event

Olympian Sam Tanner won the mile at the 2025 Cooks Classic. Photo / Peter Jones

Stadium bests, personal bests and, potentially, a world record were set at the 2025 Cooks Classic athletics meet in Whanganui.

Saturday’s event had all the stars on show at Cooks Gardens, as well as young up-and-coming athletes hoping to test their ability against the best.

Whanganui Athletics Club president Alec McNab was pleased that all the stars aligned on the day to make for an enthralling watch.

“It was a good atmosphere, the people I spoke to really enjoyed it and we were bloody lucky with the weather,” McNab said.

“We were blessed with a beautiful evening for it – it was still, warm and [had] a slight tailwind, which helped sprinters.

“To have Olympic champions here was terrific.”

He said the presence of Olympians, including hammer thrower Lauren Bruce, high jumper Hamish Kerr, long-distance runner Sam Tanner and others, was a huge factor for large crowd numbers.

“To see that crowd around by the high jump was just terrific – the atmosphere and the look on their faces when they had an Olympic champion jumping was one of the highlights for me,” McNab said.

“We had the largest numbers for some years for an athletics meeting in Whanganui.”

Paris Olympics gold medallist Kerr won the high jump with a 2.24m leap.

McNab said his presence and the atmosphere around the event resulted in the other jumpers breaking their personal bests.

Cooks Gardens is renowned as “the home of the mile” for Sir Peter Snell’s world record of 3m 54.4s, set there in 1962.

This year’s men’s open mile was won by Olympian Sam Tanner, clocking in at 3m 55.75s – his third consecutive win in the event.

In second place was Australian Jack Bruce, just falling short by 1.15s with 3m 56.90s.

McNab said the open men’s mile race “completely delivered”, with 45 entries.

“There is always a good atmosphere, particularly because of its reputation for the mile. It has been years since 45 have entered an event like the mile - it speaks for itself.

“Cooks Gardens really is the home of the mile.”

The stadium previously had 77 sub-four-minute mile times – it has increased to 79 with Tanner and Bruce’s performances.

Sam Ruthe is believed to have broken a world record for a 15-year-old with his performance in the men’s open mile, clocking 4m 01.72s.

The previous record of 4m 05.48s is believed to have been set by Evan Grime at a British Milers Club meet in Bury, England.

Sam Ruthe, seen embracing race winner Sam Tanner, is believed to have broken the world record for a mile run by a 15-year-old, recording 4m 01.72s. Photo / Peter Jones

Ruthe, who was fourth over the line, was second of the Kiwi athletes competing. Inquiries are under way into his potential world record.

Teenage Olympian Ethan Olivier broke the stadium record for the junior triple jump, reaching 16.6m and beating the previous record by 1.17m.

Bruce took out the women’s hammer throw with 67.48m with Whanganui’s Lexi Maples second (62.1m).

McNab said the best local performance, in his opinion, was that of Jonathan Maples in the 400m hurdles.

Maples clocked 52.05s, winning by a comfortable margin and beating his previous personal best by .07s.

McNab said the athletes were always fond of Whanganui and the facilities on offer.

“They clearly like coming to Whanganui, there is no question about that,” he said.

“We try very hard to look after them.”