In-Form Australian Olympic Pair All Set for Aut Queen Street Golden Mile

Tuesday 26 March, 2013: Two in-form Australians, Collis Birmingham and Ryan Gregson loom as the likely favourites to take out the elite men’s race in the AUT Queen Street Golden Mile on Easter Monday.

Gregson (23), the fastest Australian over 1500m with a personal best of 3m 31s, two weeks ago paced Kiwi Nick Willis to win the 1500m at Sydney with a time of 3m 34.68s and achieve an A qualifying time for this year’s World Athletic Championships. Gregson, who finished 2nd ran a season best 3m 35.25s which gained him a B qualifying mark.

Birmingham (29) helped set the pair up before fading to finish 5th with a time of 3m 39s. But that was just a sharpener for his key event, the World Cross Country Championships in Poland yesterday where he ran an outstanding race to finish 8th out of a field of more than 90 athletes.

It was Birmingham’s 5th appearance at the World Cross Country Championships and he was less than a minute behind the winner, Kenyan teenage sensation Japhet Korir, and also the only non-African to finish in the top 10.

Last held in 1983, the return of the Queen Street Golden Mile is a John Walker Find Your Field of Dreams Foundation initiative. The aim is to provide Aucklanders young and old the chance to run in the footsteps of champions and, at the same time, generate some revenue to support the work of the Foundation. For event details go to www.queenstreetmile.co.nz

Leading Kiwi hope for the elite women’s mile, Lucy van Dalen, who has been training with the Australian pair and a number of other international athletes in Melbourne for the last six weeks, rates Gregson the likely favourite for the elite men’s mile down Queen St on April 1.

“It was exciting to be in Sydney and watch Nick run so well to achieve a World Championship qualifying time,” she says. “But he was pushed all the way by Ryan and Collis, who are also in racing form.”

Among the other overseas starters are top US collegiate runner Miles Batty who ran 3m 54.4s at the Millrose Games in February, to break the American Indoor Collegiate mile record by almost half a second and young Australian Brett Robinson who was the third Australian home at the World Cross Country Championships with a creditable 29th place finish.

The Queen Street Golden Mile Easter Monday afternoon starts with a Mayoral Lunch hosted by Mayor Len Brown at the Cloud on Queen’s Wharf followed by about 16 races spread over four hours, including juniors, veterans, over 20s, a corporate team event, an Auckland Citizen’s mile - open to anyone over the age of 16 - culminating in an elite men’s and women’s mile.

Special guest at the event will be former Olympic gold medallist and world 1500m and mile world record holder Steve Ovett.

Find Your Field of Dreams Foundation Chief Executive, Craig Pollock, says the good form of the internationals should ensure the elite miles “are the competitive races we hoped they would be. But the event is also about enabling as many people as possible to experience the thrill of a street mile. And all those who enter the Auckland Citizens mile will receive a certificate with their officially registered times recorded.”

The Queen Street Golden Mile has the support of Mayor Len Brown as well as Auckland Council, Athletics Auckland and the NZ Olympic Committee.

All the races will start at the Queen St/Mayoral Drive intersection with athletes racing to the bottom of Queen Street, across Customs and Quay Streets, finishing on Queen’s Wharf.

More details about the Queen Street Golden Mile are at www.queenstreetmile.co.nz
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