Rising NZ running star Sam Tanner blitzes mile in Boston

Sam Tanner has done it again.

New Zealand middle-distance runner Sam Tanner.
Photo: Photsport/Tsutomu Kishimoto

Just eight days after setting a new personal best in the mile, the rising star of New Zealand running has smashed that mark to become the third-fastest miler in the country’s history.

The 22-year-old from Papamoa, who was sixth in last year’s Commonwealth Games 1500m final, ran 3:52.85 to finish second at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston on Sunday (NZ time).

Tanner’s time is only bettered – indoors or outdoors – by Olympic medallists Sir John Walker and Nick Willis.

Walker’s personal best of 3:49.08, set in Oslo in 1982, stands as the national record, while Willis ran his personal best of 3:49.83 in 2014.

Willis also holds the New Zealand indoor mile record at 3:51.06.

Tanner’s performance is Boston comes hot on the heels of the Cooks Classic in Whanganui, where he took 0.41 seconds off his personal best to win his second national mile title.

In taking a further 1.71 seconds off that, he went from eighth on the all-time list to third, surpassing legendary names such as Sir Peter Snell and Rod Dixon.

Tanner became New Zealand’s second fastest ever in the 1500m, behind only Willis, when he ran a three second personal best of 3:31.34 at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

The Tauranga Ramblers runner gets a chance to even further lower his mark in the mile when he lines up in the prestigious Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games indoors in New York next weekend.

Meanwhile, Tanner hasn’t been the only New Zealander impressing off-shore.

Birmingham Commonwealth Games high jump gold medallist Hamish Kerr has almost eclipsed his personal best to win the World Indoor Tour meeting in the Czech Republic.

The 26-year-old, who also collected bronze at last year’s World Indoor Championships, took victory with a leap of 2.30m, just one centimetre shy of his lifetime best set in Wellington in early 2021.

– RNZ