The Millrose Games in New York, billed as the world\u2019s premier indoor track meet, and scene of some of his best runs, are on February 1, and the one big opportunity before the defence in Poland a few weeks\u2019 later.<\/p>\n
Longer-term are such targets as the Prefontaine Classic in the United States in July, the Commonwealth Games in Scotland next July 23-August 22, and the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
He has the New Zealand 3000m steeplechase record at 8m 9.64s, and reckons the eight-minute barrier is achievable, but doesn\u2019t talk world record goals \u2013 the record in the current specialist event is 7m 52.11s.<\/p>\n
The chances happen when they happen, he says, but as a pretty snappy runner across the distances from 1500m to 5000m, he does have some goals against the clock.<\/p>\n
With a one-mile best of 3m 49.09s at the Prefontaine meeting in Eugene, Oregon, last year, he is just one-hundredth of a second from former world record holder John Walker\u2019s New Zealand time, 3m 49.08s, run in 1982.<\/p>\n
Geordie Beamish celebrates winning the men’s 3000m steeplechase final during the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on September 15. Photo \/ Jewel Samaf.<\/p>\n
At 5000m, he has the national men\u2019s record of 13m 4.33s, with the 13-minute barrier somewhere on the radar.<\/p>\n
In the back of the mind, too, is the 1500m, the flat race etched into the New Zealand psyche, based on the black singlet\u2019s Olympic Games history in the event, the gold medals of Jack Lovelock in Berlin in 1936, Peter Snell in Tokyo in 1964, and Walker in Montreal in 1976.<\/p>\n
There is no steeplechase on the Hastings Potts Classic programme, although meet manager Richard Potts briefly pondered the possibility of having Beamish on hand, even to just shake hands and sign a few autographs.<\/p>\n
As a youngster, Beamish had not seen himself necessarily as some sort of world champion, his sports having revolved mainly around cricket and hockey in the preparatory years at Lindisfarne College, in Hastings.<\/p>\n
He was an opening batsman, recalling: \u201cI think I hit 96 once.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beamish won the World Championships 3000m steeplechase final in a perfectly judged race, but with a comparatively slow time of 8m 33.88s.<\/p>\n
His Tokyo win came with his now-famed \u201ckick\u201d, running down two-time Olympic champion Soufiane El Bakkali, of Morocco, in the last strides, in a moment that might have reminded some of Kiwi\u2019s last-to-first performance to win the 1983 Melbourne Cup.<\/p>\n
But that \u201ckick\u201d has been known for years now, notably since ending American Craig Engel\u2019s premature celebrations with a last strides one-mile win at the Prefontaine meeting in 2021.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s not having a complete break at home, because top runners can\u2019t, physically and otherwise, afford not to run regularly, so long as the legs are in the right shape.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll try to get along to the [regional] sports park, just to say Hi,\u201d before Tuesday\u2019s first club night for the Hastings Athletics Club this week.<\/p>\n
He sees the strength and potential of New Zealand athletics, as highlighted by the performances of himself, high jumper Hamish Kerr, throwers including Hawke\u2019s Bay discus exponent Nick Palmer, and has a tip for any youngster who thinks they might have the talent.<\/p>\n
\u201cSurround yourself with like-minded people that will keep you in it,\u201d he said, warning not to give up when beaten, and not to give up eating, with \u201cheaps\u201d of carbohydrates.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes quite a lot of time to reach this level,\u201d he said. But I still lose a lot more than I win.\u201c<\/p>\n
Doug Laing has been a reporter in Hawke\u2019s Bay for more than 40 years of a 52-year career in journalism, covering most aspects of news, including sports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Millrose Games in New York, billed as the world\u2019s premier indoor track meet, and scene of some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[95,16671,1863,7793,24823,27126,6028,8813,15441,1888,1668,24822,1976,1345,56056,56057,25449,17768,3025,111,139,69,6641,8808,2249,213,5433,14907,1361,2044,14443,377],"class_list":["post-70596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-and","tag-athletics","tag-back","tag-bays","tag-beamish","tag-break","tag-champion","tag-competing","tag-crowd","tag-first","tag-front","tag-geordie","tag-hawkes","tag-home","tag-kickn","tag-knowing","tag-level","tag-means","tag-most","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-runner","tag-running","tag-soon","tag-sports","tag-stage","tag-successful","tag-that","tag-time","tag-wont","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}