Hosting the Cooks Classic under Red Light conditions was a challenge met in spectacular fashion

Julian Oakley (105 Athletics Tauranga) became the 70th athlete to break the four minute mile at Cooks Gardens, his first at the iconic track on the 60th anniversary of Sir Peter Snell's epic world record. Photo / Lewis Gardner 300122WCCC-19.JPG

The only missing ingredient at the Pak 'n Save Cooks Classic on Sunday was spectators, who would have been treated to a wonderful evening of track and field.

The holding of the annual Classic was a challenge under the red traffic light system, and it was decided at the start of the week that spectators would be excluded from the event. The Classic had been broken into three sessions, with gaps between each to keep within the number restrictions.

The hard work in planning in less than a week was rewarded by an evening in which seven stadium records were broken. And two more athletes were added to the sub four-minute mile roll of honour, which 60 years after Peter Snell's World Record and first at Cooks Gardens now stands at 71.

The women ran in the penultimate race in which Laura Nagel broke Lucy Oliver's record, stopping the clock in four minutes 35.23 seconds. It was fitting that Whanganui's New Zealand Olympian Oliver was on track to present the medal to Nagel. Oliver and Nagel are now the first and second women to run the female equivalent of a sub four-minute mile (4 min 36). Former international distance runner Roger Robinson broke his own men's over-80s New Zealand record.

The miles were a fitting conclusion to the meeting in the week that Cooks Gardens was recognised by World Athletics.

The most impressive of the stadium records came in the men's high jump, when New Zealand Olympic finalist Hamish Kerr (10th in Tokyo) broke his own record, jumping 2.26 metres, 2.27 metres and 2.28 metres in successive years at Cooks Gardens. He had an attempt at 2.32 metres to break his New Zealand record (2.31), which looks likely to happen in the near future. Keely O 'Hagan came close to breaking Australian Tokyo medal winner Nicola McDermott's stadium high jump record of 1.83 metres with good attempts at 1.84 metres to win with 1.81 metres.

The meeting started with the first stadium record when Portia Bing broke her own record, winning the mixed race in 55.99 seconds. The mixed race was added to the meet as a non-permit event, in which Bing was ineligible for world ranking points. Bing fully acknowledged the implication of the mixed race as she searched for competition.

Whanganui athlete Jonathan Maples, returning from injury, won the race with a personal best 55.67 seconds. Cameron Moffitt and Whanganui's Nat Kirk, both running for New Zealand Secondary Schools, set personal bests in their respective third and fourth places, adding value to the mixed race.

As Bing finished her race, Tori Peeters, who only decided just before entries closed to come to Whanganui, was rewarded with a perfect javelin wind and set a new stadium record of 55.85 metres, breaking Kirsten Smith's 32-year-old record. A little later in the evening, in the second session, New Zealand Olympian Lauren Bruce broke her own hammer stadium record with an excellent 72.05-metre throw. Bruce raced between the hammer and the new drop-in shot circle with success, winning the latter with a 13.39-metre put.

In the men's shot, double Olympic bronze medal winner and former world champion Tom Walsh won with 20.76-metre effort in his first competition of the season. Local throws coach Richard Drabczynski was correct in a discussion after the meet concerning the top performance of the evening when his pick was Walsh. On international comparison tables, Walsh's performances narrowly shaded Kerr's (1167, 1161) points. Having two world-class athletes competing at the same time highlighted the quality of the meeting. It is hoped that Walsh will return to attack the stadium record next year in front of a large crowd on the special shot circle.

Georgia Hulls battled a 3.4-metre/second head wind to win the 200 metres in 23.51. The stadium record was held by the great Australian Olympic medal winner Raelene Boyle (23.5) in the days of hand timing. Both performances will be recorded on the Cooks stadium record list.

Will Anthony smashed the existing under-20s stadium record by over 20 seconds with an impressive display of front-running to win in eight minutes, 4.23 seconds in a race that immediately preceded the two New Zealand Championship Miles.

Laura Nagel, as mentioned earlier, broke the stadium record (4:3523), breaking away from Anneke Grogan (North Harbour Bays – 4:37.48 and Kara Macdermid (Palmerston North – 4:48.48.). Julian Oakley (Athletics Tauranga) became the 70th athlete to break four minutes, his first at the iconic track. Matthew Taylor (North Harbour Bays 3:58.88) became the 71st for his first at any venue. They could well have been joined by Eric Speakman, who has met the mark twice at Cooks Gardens but unfortunately fell going into the final lap.