Athletics: Record entries, leading athletes line up for Whanganui’s Cooks Classic

Sixth-placed Sam Tanner with the 1500m winner Oliver Hoare at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Photo / Photosport

After a couple of late entries for the Pak’nSave Cooks Classic on Saturday, last year’s record entry has been equalled, remarkable in times of rising living costs and domestic travel increases.

It has been good to be able to welcome overseas athletes although the huge rise in international air travel has affected all of the Classic Meets.

Five New Zealand Commonwealth Games team athletes will be at Cooks Gardens including gold-medal winners Tom Walsh and Hamish Kerr plus Sam Tanner, who finished sixth with a world-class performance in the best and fastest Commonwealth 1500 metre final, Keely O’Hagan (high jump) and hammer thrower Lauren Bruce. The entries are further boosted by 30 members of the Touring New Zealand Secondary Schools Team with three Whanganui athletes due to start at Cooks Gardens.

The men’s mile, which doubles as the New Zealand Championship, will again bring the curtain down on an action-packed programme. It will be preceded by the women’s mile which has two outstanding Australians - Sarah Billings and Georgia Griffith - in the field, both looking for fast times. Earlier in the programme, the under-20 milers are in action competing for New Zealand titles with tasty fields in both bolstered by the strong current crop of outstanding junior athletes, many wearing the New Zealand Schools black singlet.

Sam Tanner, who sits ninth on the Cooks Gardens all-time mile list, would love to elevate himself higher in those rankings of the 71 who have run under 4 minutes at the venue. Tanner will be helped by Australians Callum Davies and Jude Thomas. Fellow Cooks Gardens sub 4-minute miler Eric Speakman will be there to keep the pace up front honest and there is considerable interest in whether rising 800m star James Preston, who convincingly won the Potts Classic 800m in record time, will win his sub 4-minute cap at the end of Saturday’s exciting programme.

Will this be the year Tom Walsh breaks the Cooks Gardens stadium record? Photo / Photosport

Commonwealth Games gold medal winner Tom Walsh, New Zealand’s most successful field event athlete in terms of World, Olympic and Commonwealth podium finishes, will be seeking to break the Cooks Gardens stadium record that has eluded him on previous visits. The stadium record holder and Commonwealth Games silver medal winner Jacko Gill is not competing but Gill’s mark of 21.11m is clearly marked on the infield from the drop-in circle in front of the main grandstand, giving a perfect view of the world-class athlete in action striving to break the record. Close and vocal support will surely assist.

The handicap nature of the 400m has attracted a large entry of 45 athletes. The eight elite men and women are also part of the timed handicap, chasing the big cash prize. The two elite races are followed by five heats with all athletes striving to win on the handicap-corrected times.

The women’s elite race looks like the race of the meeting where Australians Jessica Thornton and Ellie Beer and Frenchwoman Loan Ville will be challenged by current leading New Zealanders Rosie Elliot, Portia Bing and Isabel Neal, with New Zealand Schools record holder Mia Powel and fellow New Zealand School representative Amelie Fairclough completing an outstanding field in which five have run under 53 seconds for the one lap.

Spectators are urged to arrive punctually as Commonwealth Games high jump champion and World Indoor medal winner Hamish Kerr is in action straight from the get-go. Kerr has set the stadium record for three consecutive years and each time he has taken another exciting step in his world-class career. The high jump starts at 6.30pm with Kerr in action around 6.50pm when fellow Commonwealth team member and Cooks Gardens record holder hammer thrower Lauren Bruce starts her quest to make it three consecutive Cooks Gardens wins.

Former Whanganui athlete Lexi Maples had an outstanding series of throws last weekend in Hastings that surpassed her previous personal best three times. Maples was second to Bruce last Saturday and would love to nail her first 60m throw at Cooks Gardens. The high jump and hammer are close together at the main Cooks St entrance and nowhere in New Zealand will you be closer to world-class track and field action.

The pre-meet is at 4pm with the 100m, 800m and the New Zealand Masters Mile on the track and triple jump and women’s javelin in the field. The main programme is officially under way at 6.40pm but entry numbers have necessitated starting the high jump 10 minutes earlier. Between the sessions the World Athletics Heritage Plaque will be unveiled by New Zealand middle-distance great Rod Dixon and Athletics New Zealand president Karen Gillum Green.