The 2026 New Year's Day Whanganui Riverbank parkrun attracted 111 runners and walkers and 16 volunteers.
Just four hours after seeing in the New Year at home, followed by my annual phone calls to friends and family in the UK, I joined 15 other volunteers and 111 runners and walkers at the Whanganui Riverbank parkrun at 8am.
The run last Thursday was in addition to the regular Saturday parkrun, with the final run of 2025 the previous Saturday recording 139 finishers. Thursday’s New Year special was followed by the second of 2026 on Saturday in miserable weather.
New Year is a time for reflection on the year past and also a time of looking forward to the year ahead.
Parkrun can reflect on a year of considerable growth. In 2025, there were 6289 finishers who walked or ran the 5km riverbank course over the 53 events held. This is an average of 119 over the whole year, a considerable increase on the previous year. These runners are joined each week by an average of 14 volunteers. There are many regulars each week, including Whanganui’s Masters world record holder Sally Gibbs who was the first 2026 finisher, the 91st time as leading woman. Two days later, she was again the leading woman and second finisher.
Every week there are visiting participants, not only from other parts of New Zealand but from countries beyond our shores. The small number of visitors each week may not have the impact of visitors to NZ Masters Games, Vintage Weekend or other major events but, taken over 53 weeks, parkrun visitors contribute to the Whanganui economy.
It was good to catch up with former Whanganui High School athlete Nat Kirk on Saturday at parkrun. Kirk is a former New Zealand Schools junior boys 300m hurdle champion. He gained further medals in his first year at senior boys level but sadly was injured in his final school year. At his final New Zealand Schools in 2022, Kirk demonstrated his all-round athleticism by taking bronze in the javelin despite a major hamstring injury that had forced him to withdraw from track events.
Kirk has just completed a Bachelor of Art and Design at Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology. It is always good to welcome former athletes back home and even better when home for longer than the tertiary vacation. Kirk will not only strengthen athletics’ senior ranks but is already, like New Zealand hurdle champion Jonathan Maples, contributing to the club off the track. Kirk will be giving assistance to Greg Fromont and his Whanganui High School training group.
Kirk is looking forward to the second half of the season. He intends moving to 800m from his 400m hurdles, although he said he might have a run over 400m hurdles at the Pak’nSave Cooks International Classic on Saturday, January 24, as this is an event that carries bronze status. If this eventuates, he will join Maples and Whanganui’s New Zealand under-20 champion Damian Hodgson in the international field.
Athletics Whanganui weekly Club Night programmes start next Tuesday (January 13) at 7pm with a shortened C programme, with a full A programme the following Tuesday. The children’s section has been changed from Mondays to 5pm on Tuesdays as a prelude to the weekly Club Nights. This will begin on Tuesday, February 10, when the 5pm programme will precede Week 1 of the Manawatū/Whanganui Championships at 6.30 pm.
There is a lot to be excited about in the weeks ahead and 2026 action has already started.
Teenage sensation Sam Ruthe set another group of New Zealand age group records, this time over 1000m at the Tauranga Twilight Meeting on January 3. His time of 2m 17.82s was also a world best at under-17 level and was just shy of John Walker’s national record of 2m 16.57s and Peter Snell’s resident record of 2m 16.6s.
Ruthe and Tauranga training partner Sam Tanner will be part of a strong lineup in the New Zealand Mile Championship which will be the final event of the Pak’nSave Cooks International. Tanner will be seeking his fifth Cooks Gardens sub-4-minute mile to equal Nick Willis’ five. He will also have Willis’ Stadium Record in his sight while Ruthe will be chasing Cameron Myers’ (Australia) Age Group World Best for a 16-year-old.
Ruthe and Tanner tied at last year’s Athletics New Zealand Track and Field Championships in Dunedin as even the photo finish camera could not separate them. Both athletes are clearly in great form and, once again, the Cooks Gardens Mile will climax an exciting evening of track and field at the Cooks Gardens Classic which will be featured in the next two Insight articles.