Comment:
There was certainly reason for former Whanganui representative runner Geordie Beamish to sport a wide grin after his storming finish in a mile race in Oregon in the US.
Beamish ran in the Prefontaine International Mile at the Prefontaine Classic back at Hayward Field after a gap of three years.
In the Prefontaine mile, American athlete Craig Engels seized the lead from Canada's Charles Philibert-Thiboutot with 150m remaining and raised his hand in a victory salute to the crowd as he entered the home straight.
He did not see that Beamish, sitting in fourth place, had yet to enter top gear.
Beamish (On Athletics Club) moved from fourth to first in the last 100, out-kicking Engels and winning in 3m 54.86s. Beamish ran the last 400m in 54s with an especially impressive final straight.
Beamish has always demonstrated good leg speed and in his final year in Whanganui ran in the winning Whanganui Collegiate School 4 x 400 team that still holds the third-fastest time run at the championships.
In that relay race, Beamish clocked a lap that was a smidgeon over 50 seconds in his final run in Collegiate colours.
The Prefontaine International mile win was Beamish's second straight victory having won the Sir Walter Miler in 3m 54.92s on August 6.
The Prefontaine performance puts Beamish eighth on the New Zealand all-time list and leapfrogs Olympian Sam Tanner, Julian Oakley and 1984 Olympic 1500m finalist Tony Rogers. Beamish, Tanner and Rogers have all run under 4 minutes for the mile at Cooks Gardens.
The mile and some other outstanding distance events were held as a pre-meet to the Diamond League held the following day. The Diamond League Meeting had 62 Olympic medal winners competing.
The Bowerman Mile was part of the Diamond programme and was won by Norway's Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigsten (3m 47.24s) with Australian Stewart McSweyn second (3m 48.40s) in a race where all 11 finishers ran under 3m 54s.
Back here, the lockdown has led to a string of cancellations and postponements. The New Zealand Secondary Schools Tournament Week has been cancelled for the second successive year as has our own Round the Lake Relay (September 6).
The New Zealand Road Race and also the Athletics New Zealand AGM, scheduled for September 4 and 5 in Cambridge, has been moved to November 6-7 at the same venue. There will be a whole list of other events likely to be rescheduled.
I hope that any additions and changes do not impact too heavily on summer sport that is so often squeezed at both the start and end of summer. In difficult times creativity, co-operation and compromise are vital in all discussions and changes.
What is different this time is that we know we are dealing with the more infectious Delta variant that, if New Zealand's policy is going to be effective, requires sticking even more rigidly to the rules imposed.
It surprises me in this respect that when taking a walk, I have observed much more traffic on the road than in the previous full lockdown. On Saturday on a 25-minute walk around quieter neighbourhood roads and the walkway, I saw 100 cars while on that walk.
The last level 4 came in late March 2020 and on the sports scene meant the cancellation of major events at the conclusion of the summer season and a later start to winter sport.
The subsequent level 2 and 3 alerts affected the end of 2020 winter season events.
As in 2020, lockdown athletes will have to rely on home-based training. For many it becomes a "boredom breaker" and might help in laying a base for the summer season ahead, providing a longer and less pressured transition than in usual years.
We all have our fingers crossed that we can return to some normality with a reduction in alert levels soon. As Yogi Berra also famously said, "It ain't over 'til it is over".
All we can hope both here and globally is that is not too far away.