World champion steeplechaser George Beamish revisits Whanganui Collegiate School roots

New Zealand track runner George "Geordie" Beamish (left) met up with Alec McNab, who coached him during his three-year stint at Whanganui Collegiate School. Photo / Fin Ocheduszko Brown

Top New Zealand athlete George “Geordie” Beamish has taken a trip down memory lane with a visit to Whanganui.

Beamish is coming off the back of a historic victory in the World Athletics Championships 3000m steeplechase race in Tokyo in September, becoming the first Kiwi to claim a world title on the track.

Last weekend, Beamish visited his old running track, Cooks Gardens, to watch some young track athletes in action before visiting his former school, Whanganui Collegiate, the following day.

He last visited Whanganui in 2023 when he did the Tongariro Alpine Crossing hike.

Since the world championships, he has been resting up, visiting his home in Hawke’s Bay, before making his way across to the River City.

Beamish attended Whanganui Collegiate School from 2012-2014 after going to board in Year 11.

He said he loved his time at Collegiate and remembered it being a happy time.

“I think it’s a pretty unique experience, to be at a place with so much tradition but you’re also surrounded by your mates seven days a week – I feel like it gives you so many opportunities here,” Beamish said.

His older brother Hugo, father Simon and grandfather all attended the school.

Beamish said the experience helped shape his athletic path.

“I don’t think I could have got to the [US] if I wasn’t here, so, in that regard, it was pretty important,” he said.

“In those years, I definitely got a lot better and learned a lot as an athlete. By Year 13, I was good enough to keep doing it for the next year.”

Coached by Whanganui athletics stalwart Alec McNab, Beamish notably won the New Zealand U18 2000m steeplechase title in 2013 and won the first of two New Zealand Junior Men’s 1500m titles during his stint in Whanganui.

George Beamish talking to Whanganui teenagers during his visit to Whanganui's Cooks Gardens on October 12. Photo / Peter Jones

Beamish admitted that steeplechase was not a priority for him at the time and he was not very interested in the event.

Instead, the New Zealand Secondary Schools Cross Country Championships in Palmerston North was his most anticipated challenge during secondary school.

“I looked at that as the biggest race of the year,” he said.

“It was miserable, cold and rainy, they just filled up a pit of knee-deep muddy water – it was brutal.”

Beamish said it had been “a good few years” for New Zealand athletics and the sport was in a good place.

“There’s a really good crop of us,” he said.

“It’s cool that we are getting a few medals. Hamish [Kerr] has been absolutely crushing it, Maddi [Wesche] has been getting a few medals on the world stage and I’ve managed to pick up a couple.”

He put the recent success down to the general standard of world athletics and other countries “lifting the bar”.

“Hopefully, we can continue to develop a few more athletes, either in the US or here. It would be nice to have a few more women at championships too,” he said.

Beamish thought with more New Zealanders getting into running, it would result in more elite-level runners.

“That is important, that is what the US has better than everywhere else, they have such a big base of amateur and recreational runners,” he said.

“They hold up the next level; it is almost like a pyramid – the higher at the top, the bigger the base is.

“The more people that run for fun in New Zealand and the bigger base we can get of people interested in running, then that kind of feeds upwards and we can support a bigger group of really elite runners – that would be really cool to see.”

Fin Ocheduszko Brown is a multimedia journalist based in Whanganui.