News & Updates

10 December 2021 • Track and Field

Back in business

It was some weekend for Whanganui Collegiate School old boys.

Competing at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener meet in Boston University, Geordie Beamish did himself, not to mention his former school, proud by destroying the New Zealand indoor 5000m record, posting a scintillating 13:12.53 (and bettering the former world record time of Dick Quax and recording the second fastest 5000m ever by a New Zealander including outdoor times).

Meanwhile, another former Whanganui Collegiate student Liam Back was also in record-breaking mood as he dismantled the national U20 3000m record, clocking 7:54.30 to scalp more than three seconds from the mark of Tokyo Olympian Sam Tanner, set outdoors in Hamilton last year.

While Geordie’s performance garnered much of the attention, Liam’s display also deserves huge plaudits, rich reward for the modest 19-year-old who is quietly excelling at Providence College in Rhode Island.

“It was crazy,” adds Liam of his performance in which he lowered his 3000m PB by almost 38 seconds “I didn’t believe it at first when I saw the time, I thought I must be the wrong result. But this is just the beginning and I know I have a lot of hard work ahead of me.”

Raised in West Auckland, Liam has long been highly motivated to meet his running goals. At the age of 15 he made the move south to study and train with renowned coach Alec McNab at Whanganui Collegiate. The switch paid dividends and he later went on to blossom as New Zealand’s leading U18 endurance athlete, winning national U18 titles over 800m, 1500m, 3000, 2000m steeplechase and cross country.

Opting to head to the US to help develop the next stage of his athletics journey he took up a scholarship at Providence College to hook up with leading Irish coach Ray Treacy, who has worked with leading New Zealand middle-distance internationals Julian Matthews, Julian Oakley and multiple New Zealand record-holder Kim Smith.

“Ray had a strong reputation of working with a lot of top Kiwi runners, so for me this was the place to be,” he says. “I remember chatting to Julian Oakley at 2020 nationals to get a better understanding of Ray and Providence and Julian pretty much sold me on the spot.”

Flying out to the US in August 2020, he arrived to a country battling the global pandemic. As a result, the cross country season was restructured allowing for very little competition during a large chunk of his freshman year.

Nonetheless, training largely carried on as normal and this gave Liam time to adapt to Ray’s programme and embed into the team.

“The first month was challenging but Ray does build you into the training very slowly and, touch wood, I’ve not been injured yet, “adds Liam. “The training has stepped up a notch and being part of a team has been great. We all push each other along. If you are having a bad day someone can take a rep for you. I’m doing a lot more quality sessions and doing them more consistently.

“Ray knows how to read his athletes, where to push and where not to, and he is a very good communicator, that is why he has been so successful.”

In March he showed the benefit of the training by scorching to a 10-second 1500m PB at Raleigh, North Carolina, recording 3:45.57 to place third.

“Ray chucked me into one of the quicker heats that day and I was getting nervous because the scheduled pace was 3:45,” explains Liam, who is one of four Kiwis currently running at Providence College alongside Angus White, Tessa Hunt and Kimberley May.

“I didn’t know, at that point, where my fitness was at. “When I looked up at the scoreboard at the end of the race it was a big shock to see that I’d run 3:45, but it definitely put me on the right path for the rest of the season.”

The following month Liam scalped 11 seconds from his mile PB in 4:03.23 in Providence to fuel further belief and he concluded the summer track season of his freshman year elated with the progress he had made.

Spending a seven-week training stint during the US summer at altitude in Colorado, Liam has since developed further strength competing on the hugely competitive US collegiate cross country circuit – earning a highly respectable top ten finish in the Conference final.

So, leading into to his first indoor competition of the season at Boston University last weekend did he even dream he could take down Sam Tanner’s national 3000m?

“Secretly, yes,” says Liam. “Ray said to me before the race I was on for something special. I knew training had been going well and he said I was in shape to run 7:55. But I’d never raced indoors before, and I had this vision in my mind of the bends being super sharp and struggling for balance. I didn’t even get a stride out on the track before the race, so that added to the nervous tension.”

Thankfully he enjoyed the bounce of the indoor track which he describes as “feeling like a trampoline” and adopting a conservative approach for the first 2000m with the goal to finish strongly over the final 1km proved a wise strategy.

“The top group went through the mile in 4:08 but they exploded over the final kilometre, which gave me people to chase and catch,” he explains. “Picking up a few places made me feel really good and I just kept pushing. I closed out that last kilometre in 2:33 before looking up at the clock and thinking holey moley. Ray was spot on the money.”

Liam does not intend to take to the track again until January but he hopes to qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships in either the mile or the 3000m and he has not ruled out a tilt at the World Indoor Championships entry standard of 7:50.

In the longer term the graphic design major would love to feature in a Providence team that qualified for the NCAA Cross Country finals while another personal aim would be to make a NCAA track final.

However, it needs to be remembered that Liam’s performance was only one half of a very special day in Boston for Whanganui Collegiate following Geordie’s performance, so was Liam inspired by the display?

“Definitely,” he says. “It was bonkers to watch him (Geordie). The field went flying through the first 3k in under eight minutes. It was great to watch and shows that you can do it and achieve great performances indoors.”

But perhaps the final word on the weekend should go to Whanganui Collegiate’s Alec McNab, former coach to both Liam and Geordie.

“It was very pleasing (to see how they performed). Of course I see myself as only a stepping stone on their pathway. I just want to see them continue in the sport once they leave school. Liam always had a good range of abilities and was very competitive. I remember in his last year at secondary schools no person had completed the 800m/1500m double (senior boys) since Nick Willis. Liam made a tactical error in the 800m – his main event at the time – and got silver but showed an ability to adapt and great competitiveness to come back and win 1500m gold.”