Tauranga Twilight Meeting - 1984

The Tauranga Twilight meeting on New Year's Day is one of the classic athletic meetings in the country. Being during the Christmas holidays, it attracts athletes from all around the North Island and makes the events very competitive. The event was very well organised with pacemakers arranged for many of the events. Of course athletes being what they are, the performances on the day weren't always earth shattering due to the effects of the party, held at Ken Knott's place, the night before.

The timing of this meeting was perfect for me. At New Year I'd usually just completed my four weeks of hill drills and was then beginning to get into the anaerobic phase of the training. A good race over my favourite 3000m distance, with good competition, would give an indication as to where I stood.

In the 1983 event the field contained Euan Robertson, Paul O'Donahue and Gary Palmer. The pace was set by Stan Grimes and I made an unfortunate tactical blunder by getting myself stuck on the pole line when a bunch of five runners took Stan at the beginning of the last lap. I managed to finish strongly but Euan had got too far in front and he just held me out.

He was in the field again for the 1984 event and warned me that I'd better not do the same thing again. I didn't.

The field was again a strong one, this time containing Russell Haswell, Mark Furlan, Geoff Shaw and Brent Addison. Again Stan Grimes made the pace, but this time I was right on his tail and as he came to the end of his work I dictated terms. I led the field into the last lap and was waiting for a challenge from the others down the back straight. None came so I kicked off the front of the field and left them to fight it out for the minor placings. It's a great feeling to be able to do that and is testament to the work completed on the hills.

I think my time of 8:14.0 was a personal best at the time (given that in those days the opportunities to run 3000m were few and far between). Russell was second in 8:14.8 and Mark Furlan third in 8:15.0.

(For the winning prize I received a cutlery set which we only retired this year)