Nate Burke is the oldest of our four and will start in both the 400m and 800m in Grade 14. Maio Cruz, who was on the podium last year, starts in Grade 11 in the 100m, 200m, high jump and long jump. Harlynn Faailili is in the grade 9 sprints 60m, 100m and 200m and long jump, while club regular Brian Wilson is in the para discus, shot, 100m and 200m and will join the more than 1000 entries from 70 clubs across the North Island at the annual event, which is into its fifth decade.
New Year is always a time of reflection and also of anticipation and excitement for the challenges that lie ahead. We can all look back on a difficult year and hope things will be better in 2022. Athletes, like so many of us, had their disappointments including at under- 18 level the cancellation of their Athletics New Zealand Championship in March and the New Zealand Schools in December.
I am reminded each Friday by a former athlete that when he ran they did not have such championships and had to make do and focus on club and local competition. I was impressed with the positive way the young athletes responded and did just that. There was a real buzz at the weekly Tuesday club nights and at the three regional meetings held in October, November and at the start of December.
From within my own group, personal bests were set 110 times in the opening weeks of this season. The year ended, as reported a fortnight ago, with the exciting announcement that three Whanganui High School hurdlers - Maggie Jones, Nat Kirk and Flynn Johnston - had won selection for the New Zealand Schools Track and Field Team to the Classic series and will be in action wearing the New Zealand singlet at our first major home event of 2022, the Pak'nSave Cooks Classic on Sunday, January 30.
January 27 marks the 60th anniversary of Peter Snell's world mile record at Cooks Gardens. The record not only cemented the venue as part of New Zealand's athletics history, but became the first of 69 sub-4-minute miles run at this iconic venue, more than at any other track in New Zealand. It also was the catalyst for a series of major meetings at Cooks Gardens in late January with the Cooks Classic the latest version. This year's is the 22nd Cooks Classic in a series that started in 2001.
Last year saw the return of the mile to Cooks Gardens as an Athletics New Zealand Championship event after a 52-year gap. Sam Tanner's win in 3:54.97 was the 66th sub-4 mile at the venue and went straight to 9th in the Cooks Gardens all-time list with Otago's Oli Chignell in fourth becoming the 69th to run under 4 minutes and earning a coveted sub-4 Presentation Cap.
The New Zealand Mile Championship is again the feature event in an action-packed two-hour programme that brings the cream of New Zealand's track and field athletes to the iconic venue. The Cooks Classic is one of the Oceania Athletics Association's approved Oceania Permit Meeting of World Athletics. Athletes will be vying for world ranking points as well as generous prizemoney and bonus for breaking any of the impressive stadium records.
The New Zealand Schools team athletes will not only feature in the under-20 3000m championships on the programme, but will add youthful excellence and depth to other fields in the way that the Young Olympian Camp athletes added an extra dimension to the Cooks Classic early in the millennium.
