REPORT – 1500M CLASSIC
By Tom Brandt

The 17th running of the 1500m Classic took place at the UQ Sport Athletics Centre on the evening of October 20th.  With the threat of possible lock down and a short window of time for entry into the event still 270 plus athletes submitted entries for the event across 20 races, indicating the popularity of the event in the distance running community.  A portend of things to come was the result of the Under 12 Boys Race 1 where Alexander Wain of the Gold Coast Run Co training group broke Ben Ganko’s record dating back to 2013 of 4:29.22, when he ran 4:27.14 to win the event. 

As the lightning was lighting up the sky, the Secondary Girls Race one and the Women’s Classic athletes lit up the track.  In Secondary Girls Race 1 Georgie Gilroy of Athletics North Club broke away from the field on the last lap and showed a clean pair of heels to the other competitors to take out the event in 4:27.22 to break one of the oldest records - that of Jade Brandt at 4:32.57 set in 2007.  Gabrielle Schmidt in second place running 4:32.21 also just snuck under the old record.  Third place went to Ella Rodwell in 4:32.94, just a tick off the old record.   A small field of only seven athletes faced the starter’s gun in the Women’s Classic race.  The athletes ran in a tight knit pack for two laps following the pacemaker.  When the pace-maker dropped out a pack of four broke away and really brought the crowd to their feet as they stormed to the finish line. In a pack of four.  It required the eagle eye of the photofinish team to separate the runners with the win going to Isabella Harte of Athletics North in 4:23.63 with Cara Feain-Ryan of the UQ Club in second in 4:23.61 and Sayla Donnelly of the Gold Coast Running Co training group in third place in 4:23.74

What had started with so much promise with the early events came to a halt when the meet had to be temporarily abandoned as a storm raged around the Athletic Centre precinct.  After a forty-five minute pause the meet reconvened but some of the sting had been taken out of the meet.  The meet recommenced with the Schoolboys Race 1 and the athletes had a crack at the long-standing record of Jack Curran at 3:55.29 set in 2010, but Brock Waugh of the Gold Coast Run Co training group fell just short in winning in 3:57.60 from Flynn Pumpa of the UQ Club in 3:58.40 and Harvey Cramb of Border Striders in 3:58.9.  The Open Men’s Classic followed and featured a changing of the guard with a number of young rising stars who had featured in recent school events.  The favourite for the event was Callum Davies of the UQ Club, but the question was how fast he could go and whether he could nudge the record dating back to 2005 after a recent bout of illness.  Callum followed the pacemaker through 800 metres and then broke away from the field and eased up to win in a classy time of 3:46.62 with his recent illness taking the sting out of his finish.  But the win caps a very successful season for the rising star of Queensland Athletics.   Second place went to Louis McAfee of the Gold Coast Running Co training group, and third place went to sixteen-year old Craig Peyton, an athlete to watch for the future in 3:47.28.

All in all it was a successful night of middle distance racing.  The organisers of the event were impressed with the number of athletes who waited out the storm and were present for their races.  The other feature of the night was the number of tight finishes in the races that the track officials weren’t able to separate and had to depend on photofinish to get the correct result.  A feature of the meet is that races are seeded based on times and sometimes there is not much of a spread of seed times in a race.

The 2021 edition of the 1500m Classic is now done and dusted and the UQ Sport Athletic Centre and Queensland Athletics can now look forward to planning for an even better event in 2022.

Full results here