Samuel Tanner competing at the 2024 Potts Classic. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Middle distance runner Sam Tanner feels the history seeping through him every time he steps onto the Cooks Garden track in Whanganui.
Tanner will race the Peter Snell New Zealand Mile Championship on Saturday night, seeking to retain the title he won a year ago.
Snell set a world record time of 3:54.4 in Whanganui in 1962.
"The Whanganui Mile is always something I try to commit to every year purely because it's prestigious, it's got history and I ran my first sub-four minute mile there in 2019," Tanner told RNZ.
The late Sir Peter Snell. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
There is a statue of Sir Peter Snell beside the track and Tanner says that always makes him feel proud when he sees it.
"It's an awesome statue and you feel the history of the track, especially when you're on the start line."
He's well aware of the rich history New Zealand has in middle distance running and is delighted to be a part of it.
"I'd like to think I'm holding the baton of New Zealand middle distance running and it's something I don't take lightly and something I'd like to carry for the next ten years or so."
While he prefers the 1500m and runs a lot more of those, Tanner does enjoy the extra challenge of the mile.
"The mile hurts more, you've got four laps plus nine metres compared to three and three quarter laps (for the 1500m) and so it's just that extra time and you're hoping not to lose too much in the last hundred metres."
The 23 year old has already done the qualifying standard for the Olympics and admits he thinks about competing in Paris all the time.
"Every minute of every day.
"Every minute that I'm living and breathing is either a gold medal moment or not making the final moment.
"It's probably one of the pressures that most people don't realise that athletes put on themselves.
"We think about those massive goals more in an Olympic year and every decision we make either has a positive or negative impact on Paris."
In the Cooks Mile on Saturday night Tanner will come up against 2022 winner Julian Oakley and Australian 1500m champion Callum Davies.
Conditions permitting the winner could go close to Nick Willis's track record of 3:52.75.
Fellow Olympian, the high jumper Hamish Kerr is also competing in Whanganui.