Top Kiwi distance runner eyes up Spectacle challenge

After Paris Olympics despair, four-time national 1500 metres champion Sam Tanner is heading to Nelson on the comeback trail.

It is four months since an Achilles injury destroyed the Bay of Plenty track star’s Olympic hopes.

The Elite Mile at the Spectacle on 14 December will be his first race since, and the 24-year-old is eager to make his first ever visit to Nelson a memorable one.

It didn’t take much persuading from race organiser Julian Matthews, himself a former middle distance runner,  to entice Sam south.

“I have done the Runway5 at Rotorua Airport and a couple of other road races as well,” says Sam, who knows Julian from seeing him coaching at the national champs.

He has been cranking out the mileage in training, up to 147 kilometres a week.

“There’s been a bit of pain along the way but I will be fit enough. It is just whether I am sharp enough. Nelson is the first step on the road to the World Indoor Championships in China next March”, confirms Sam.

He knows his Nelson assignment won’t be a walk in the park though as two regular rivals are coming from overseas.

Three-time British 1500 metres champion Noel Gourley, a Scotsman based in the United States, and Tasmanian Stewy McSweyn have both been competitive enough to go to the Olympics as well.

But Sam is expecting some high-powered local support for the Saturday night Spectacle. He reports Nelson’s own former middle distance standout, Rod Dixon, has messaged him from time to time with “good job, Sam”.

It was 50 years ago that Rod recorded his quickest 1500 metres time, 3 minutes, 33.89 seconds in that unforgettable Commonwealth Games final in Christchurch where Tanzanian Filbert Bayi beat John Walker.

Sam’s the current New Zealand champion with his 3.31.15 the second best-ever Kiwi time behind Nick Willis.

And he is also second on the all-time mile list with 3.49.51, which isn’t far behind John and ahead of Nick.

As he points out, when he left Bethlehem College, in Tauranga, he was presented with a leaving top with “runner up” on it. Not only a reference to some of his teenage sporting results but the fact he was deputy head boy.

While he has heard the Spectacle Mile is just a couple of runs around the block, Sam is keen to hit the trail the next day with Julian already talking up the Abel Tasman National Park.