The meeting is the first of five on the New Zealand track and field classic series calendar, attracting many of the South Island’s top athletes.
In the feature race, the Lovelock Mile, Samuel Bremer represents Otago’s best hope. The 21-year-old has been absent from the track for the majority of the summer, although he is coming off a strong winter in which he won the senior men’s Otago 10km road title. That followed an impressive silver medal performance at the national championships in the 800m, in which he ran 1min 52.57sec. Despite the quiet season so far, Bremer’s one performance was a strong one, running a personal best 8min 38.94sec in the 3000m in Timaru in November. It would not be a surprise to see him notch another personal best on the same track tomorrow, with just two miles to his name and a personal best of 4min 22.27sec, set in 2015.
Other strong contenders in the field include two-time champion and former Otago runner Daniel Balchin, Canterbury’s Nick Moulai and Ben Musson, plus Southland’s Jack Beaumont.The winner will receive a $600 prize, with an added $400 should they break the four-minute mark. Otago Masters athletes Robert Homan and Geoff Anderson will also contest the event.
Otago’s two top female sprinters, Christina Ashton and Fiona Centers, will both be in action over the shorter distances. Ashton placed in the 100m, 200m and 100m hurdles at last year’s meet and is in with a chance of doing so again, although she will not run the 200m. Centers will run the 100m and 200m. They face tough competition, notably from Canterbury’s Kelsey Berryman, who ran 11.70sec to be the country’s fourth-ranked women’s 100m sprinter in 2016, and Fiona Morrison, the country’s second-ranked 100m hurdler, who ran 13.16sec last year.
Paralympic champion Anna Grimaldi will compete in the long jump, while also racing alongside Centers in the 200m. Youngster Hannah Ashton will also feature in the long jump, as well as the high jump and 100m.
Felix McDonald, Rory O’Neill and Schuyler Orr line up in a men’s 100m field which includes 2016 national silver medallist Scott Walker. Walker has been well below his best this season, his best time of 11.24sec well off the 10.85sec he ran in the national final in Dunedin in March.
O’Neill and Orr will also feature in the 200m, while McDonald has a chance of placing in a long jump field which also contains 7.10m-jumper Cody Thomas and returning star Jesse Bryant.
Sam Gouverneur and Matthew Ogle will compete in the 800m, while Kirk Madgwick will run in the 3000m. Youngster Tara McNally will compete in both the under-18 100m and 300m hurdles, as well as the open 200m sprint.
The meeting begins at 1pm and the Lovelock Mile is to be held at 2pm.
