Russell Green has come within just over a second of breaking one of running’s great marks.
The Hill City-University runner clocked a time of 4min 1.24sec in Sunday night’s national mile championships, held at Whanganui’s Cooks Classic.
He finished third, behind Julian Oakley (Tauranga) and Matthew Taylor (North Harbour Bays), who both
went below the four-minute mark.
It continues an impressive summer for the 20-year-old, who broke the Otago men’s 20 years 3000m record a week earlier, in a time of 8min 7.18sec.
Sunday’s result came after a strong finish from Green.
He had been part of a pack towards the front, although was slightly back from the leaders going into the final lap.
It was clubmate Oli Chignellwho led the pack around the third lap.
However, Chignell, who broke the four-minute barrier in the same race last year, was unable to keep the pace.
He finished 10th in 4min 5.96sec, as the chasing group, led by Oakley, surged over the final 200m.
HCU’s Jared Monk also ran a handy 4min 7.55sec to finish 12th.
Ariki’s Shay Veitch won the men’s long jump, although his injury-plagued season continued.
The national champion managed 7.15m with his only legal jump and retired from the competition after three jumps.
HCU’s Cameron Moffitt showed his class in the 400m hurdles, his time of 56.36sec winning the men’s race.
Two former Otago athletes had strong showings in the women’s events.
Hamilton City Hawks thrower Tori Peeters set a ground record of 58.95m on the way to winning the women’s javelin by nearly 19m.
Christchurch Old Boys United sprinter Rosie Elliott ran 23.96sec in the 200m, finishing just behind Georgia Hulls and well clear of the rest of the field.
