Cooks Gardens was at its best and we were blessed with wonderful weather in the lead-up and a perfect evening on the day with a gentle tail breeze on the home straight. By 9pm, as is so often the case in Whanganui, the wind died completely in time for the Cooks Classic Mile.
Olympic high jump gold medal winner Hamish Kerr continued his support of the event, including a television interview just two days before the event, a massive boost for the iconic Cooks Classic. There were 45 entries for the men’s mile and 23 in the women’s and a similar number in the Masters Mile, confirming the popularity of the classic distance at Cooks Gardens, “the Home of the Mile”.
Cooks Gardens has been a hive of athletic activity throughout February and March with the athletics section of the New Zealand Masters Games only eight days after the Cooks Classic and week 1 of the MWA Championships nine days later. Eleven school championships and weekly Club Nights, for both seniors and children, saw formal athletics events at Cooks Gardens on 26 occasions over February and March.
The return of schools to Cooks Gardens, and the revitalisation of the children’s section under Paula Conder and her team, has been reflected in a healthy growth in registrations over the 2024 -2025 year, a foundation that will hopefully be built on in the season ahead and over the Harriers’ centenary year.
Numbers have also grown at the weekly parkrun with a record 202 participants last Saturday enjoying the mild Easter weather. The first time more than 100 participated was on December 23, 2023, (120) and we had to wait until the 200th Whanganui Riverbank parkrun the following October to record more than 140 (142 participants), a number matched five weeks later. Before last Saturday, 176 had been the highest (on the day of the Cooks Classic on January 25).
My volunteer job last Saturday was welcoming and briefing the many first-timers. First-timers are reminded it is a run/walk, not a race, even if some treat it as one. The many visitors from throughout New Zealand and beyond are formally welcomed at the main pre-run briefing. It is interesting that of the 202 finishers, there were 93 females and 94 males. There were 18 participants listed as “unknown” (they either forgot their barcode or had not registered with parkrun). The barcodes, supplied by parkrun as part of registration, are free and can be used at any of the many worldwide parkruns.
It has been good to catch up with former athletes and to see the mix of so many different age groups on Saturdays at the riverbank. I was interested in Saturday’s gender balance as female participation in sport and activities such as parkrun is extremely topical, especially in terms of the number of girls dropping out of sport. It would be interesting to find out what motivates so many to run, jog or walk 5km on a Saturday morning and what, if any, sports they have been involved in the past or are presently involved in.
There have been several recent articles concerning girls and sport and I was interested in a study on hormonal effects on women in training and recovery presented as a news item earlier this week. It featured research which included work in Canterbury by a former Whanganui Collegiate athlete Bex Attwell whose brother Max has won many New Zealand decathlon titles. I will be interested in finding more about the research in terms of coaching and whether it provides insights into coaching female athletes.
Cross country beckons with its challenges for both male and female athletes.
