Event set to weave its magic again

ONE TO WATCH: Three-time New Zealand 800m champion and former Wanganui athlete Brad Mathas will be a favourite in the men's mile at the Cooks Classic next Tuesday. PHOTO/FILE

THE fact that I am out on 15 evenings over the next three weeks is a reminder that track and field athletics has come out of the annual Christmas, New Year lull and there is a notable increase of pace and activity around the country.

Over the past weekend hundreds of children took part in the annual North Island Colgate Games with the South Island version this weekend. As noted in yesterday's Chronicle there were significant Wanganui entries in the North Island event with three gold medals from Genna Maples, and a number of other finalists including a promising distance performances from Morgan Murray. It is interesting to note that though wind-aided, 11-year-old Maples' 200 metre performance of 26.28s would have ranked her third in the UK under-13 rankings.

The series for senior athletes commences on Saturday in Hastings with the Sylvia Potts Classic. It then moves to Wanganui on Tuesday with the annual Cooks Classic at Cooks Gardens and concludes with the Capital Classic on Friday.

Tomorrow the Hawera Club run a "Jumps to Music" event in Hawera. Jumps to Music competitions originated in Europe and have proven to be wildly popular with both competitors and spectators over the years. Each competitor chooses a song for the evening that they will jump to and when it is their turn to jump their music is pumped over the sound system. At the end of the evening there will be a people's choice award for which athlete had the best song. Our own Cooks Classic has benefited from this Hawera innovation by the fact that the leading jumpers from Hawera will compete in Wanganui including the two Australian high jumpers Jake Hollis and Chris Dodds, the latter with an impressive 2.23m high jump to his name.

It is good to see the sport adapt good ideas and innovation into their meetings and the Cooks Classic has never been afraid of adopting new ideas or adapting older ones. On Tuesday evening the Cooks Classic returns to handicap events with javelin and a 400m on the track. The javelin has a small but quality field headed by Stuart Farquhar. Farquhar first represented New Zealand at the World Junior Championships in 1998 and again in 2000 and has competed as a senior for New Zealand since 2008. He has won silver medals at the World Universities and Commonwealth Games and has thrown in both World and Olympic finals. He will be joined in the javelin by training partner Ben Langdon-Burnell from Palmerston North who is consistently throwing over 70 metres and is the clear successor to Farquhar. They are joined by New Zealand Schools' medal winners Laura Overton, Aiden Smith (Palmerston North) and Wanganui's Opetini Dryden. All athletes have a chance to win the St John's Club sponsored event because it is competed for on handicap based on best 2014 performances. Spectators will have the benefit of two indicator boards to follow the event (one with the actual performance and the other the handicap performance)

There is real quality in many of the fields with New Zealand-ranked hurdlers Cameron French and Phil Simms in the men and the two top women, Kelsey Berryman and Amy Robinson, in the women's event. The Triple Jump field benefits from jumpers who will attend the Hawera meeting headed by Scott Thompson in the men and Nik Okpala in the women.

Incorporated in the meeting are the New Zealand Junior 3000m championships that have attracted fields of 22 and 15 respectively in the men's and women's grades. Both events have local interest with Geordie Beamish hoping to add another national title to those won over the last two years. He is joined by Christian Conder and Louis Hogan in the large field while in the women Alice Bird steps up a grade to join a strong field.

The 3000m events has meant that the popular junior men's mile is not on this year's programme and the women's mile that usually attracts leading juniors is a little smaller than usual. However the outstanding young Rosa Flanagan returns to head the women's field and could get a strong challenge from Tina Harris (Wellington). Although there is no Nick Willis this year a good field of nine will compete in the men's mile headed by three-time New Zealand 800 metre champion and former Wanganui athlete Brad Mathas, and Simon Rogers, son of Olympic finalist and former Cooks Gardens sub four minute miler Tony Rogers. The athletes will dream of adding their names to the list of Cooks Gardens' sub four minute miles, more than at any other venue in New Zealand. The mile, like a number of other events, also has a performance bonus attached to it.

The action-packed two-hour package commences at 7pm and includes the popular "Fastest Kid on the block" held midway through the evening giving younger athletes a chance to share the limelight with their older counterparts. The last qualifying chance is today at Williams Park at noon. Entry will be by gold coin donation rather than a gate charge this year and it is hoped the good weather continues to allow families to share a wonderful evening.