He has also coached 41 New Zealand representatives in a career stretching back to 1974.
Included in that were names such as Chantal Brunner, Tim Soper, Roger Te Puni and Jessica Penney.
Now he is adding to that number in Wanaka.
The 72-year-old relocated south at the end of 2016 after semi-retiring from his job as an engineer.
Word spread quickly and very soon he and his wife, former Commonwealth Games medallist Barbara (nee Polsen), were coaching some of the town’s most promising youngsters.
The results from those youngsters have been impressive.
At last year’s secondary school national championships, Mount Aspiring College won both junior girls relay titles.
Estelle Gellaty, Abby Fisher, Georgie Bruce and Niamh Townsend ran 51.69sec to win the 4×100m.
Scarlett Norman then replaced Townsend in an otherwise unchanged line-up to win 4×400m gold.
Fisher added a bronze in the junior 200m.
She had also impressed at the Otago Championships over the weekend, alongside Townsend in the long jump and Bruce in the high jump.
All three achieved results which would have won the senior women’s titles, alongside their own grades.
It is a promising platform to build from.
Beable said Fisher — who has personal bests of 12.58sec and 25.62sec — was running as fast as any 16-year-old he has coached.
Likewise Townsend, at 14 years old, was in a similar position in the long jump.
Her legal personal best is 5.18m, although she managed a wind-assisted 5.46m last weekend.
Beable said it was all very encouraging.
His squad of 10 was a keen, dedicated and hard-working group and that was important.
‘‘Really all it is is putting in a coaching structure to what’s happening here in Wanaka, in the way we did in last 40-45 years before we came here,’’ he said.
‘‘And getting them used to training as an athlete and getting them conditioned through winter so they can benefit from the competitions in summer.
‘‘That was a big thing for people to realise, that athletes are made in winter, not summer.’’
There were challenges aplenty.
Wanaka has no all-weather track, so the squad trains on grass. It does the majority of that at the Wanaka Recreation Centre, which it shares with other sports, which limits its availability.
Its long jump pit does not have a run-up or a board, while it only recently obtained a high jump mat. But
it was a case of getting by and making it work.
So too with competitions, which are not close-by.
The group travelled to Dunedin for most of its events, although it has also been to Timaru and Christchurch.
However, it was not deterring Beable from continuing to coach, or his athletes from competing.
It kept him fit and he still enjoyed seeing the smiles on the athletes’ faces as they achieved success.
