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Lovelock Classic organising committee member Linley Welford is looking forward to the country’s top athletes racing on the new track.
Some of New Zealand’s top athletes are among the record number entered in Timaru’s annual Lovelock Classic, being held on a newly laid $1 million track on Saturday.
Organising committee member Linley Welford said the classic’s senior section had 160 entrants, 30 more than 2023 and bettering the record of 141 set in 2022. Numbers in Saturday morning’s junior programme match the senior entries.
“It’s a really, really good number for the Lovelock Classic and it’s nice to see that the numbers in the junior category are still maintaining the status quo,” Welford said.
The Lovelock miles, named after South Canterbury-educated Jack Lovelock, who won the 1936 Berlin Olympics gold medal in the 1500m in a world record time of 3:47.8, are the meeting’s feature events and are due to start at 2pm for the men and 2.10pm for women.
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South Canterbury competitor Maggie Robinson at the Lovelock Classic in 2023.
Lovelock, educated at Fairlie School and Timaru Boys’ High School, also broke the world mile record in 1933, running 4:07.6.
Welford said Cameron Avery would be back to defend his title in the men’s mile and the athletes who placed second and fourth last year were back as well.
“It will be an interesting race to see who ends up winning. We have 28 athletes competing in the men’s Lovelock Mile all together.”
Avery, from Christchurch Avon, won the 2023 men’smile in 4:16.87.
Rebekah Greene (Hill City University Athletics Club), who won the 2023 women’smile in 4:42.46, is back to defend her title, lining up against the likes of NZ 1500m bronze medallist Rosa Twyford and former New Zealand 1500m champion Katherine Camp.
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Other notable entries are 2022 Commonwealth Games gold medal-winning high jumper Hamish Kerr, heptathlete Portia Bing, long-jumper Felix McDonald, the 2023 Lovelock Classic shot put and javelin champion Jared Neighbours, New Zealand’s top male sprinter Tiaan Whelpton, who is back from training in Pretoria as he hunts a sub 10-second 100m and a place at the Paris Olympics.
“All races during the meeting will be competitive and will have a high calibre of high-performance athletes competing.”
Welford said one of the things the increase in participation numbers could be attributed to was the increasing popularity of the event.
“The Lovelock Classic got an upgrade to a permit event. All athletes now get points and those points go towards their international standings.
“For the under 18 categories, this is a good event to participate in.”
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Cameron Avery’s dash to the finish line in 2023 to win the Men’s Lovelock Mile.
Welford said preparations for Saturday’s meet at Aorangi Stadium had been going smoothly.
“This is the first meeting on the new track. It took us three years to get this track laid and this is a milestone for us.
“It’s great to see everything’s up to speed, and the athletes will hopefully get the best times on the new track.”
Work on re-laying the $1m all-weather track was completed in October. The work was undertaken by workers from Mondo, a specialist synthentic track-laying firm from Italy.
The original track opened in February 2004 with a grandstand added in 2008 in preparation for the first time the track hosted the New Zealand Secondary Schools’ Championships in 2009.
The meeting starts at 9.30am for juniors, while the senior events begin at 1pm. Entry is free.
