
Not even dreary weather could stop the magic at the annual Lovelock Classic permit meeting.
Held at the Aorangi Park all-weather athletics track on Saturday, the opening event of the 2025 athletics season attracted a full field of top athletes to Timaru.
Highlighting the event were the performances of Ethan Smolej (University of Canterbury) and Maddie Wilson (Canterbury), who set new meeting records.
Smolej, who finished second in last year’s mile, managed to hold off world junior representative James Mcleay (St Paul’s) and 2024 national 1500m bronze medallist David Lee (Whippets) to claim a new meeting record in the men’s mile with an impressive time of 4 min 6.10sec.
Commentator Kevin O’Sullivan announced to the stadium after Smolej’s win that, even if Jack Lovelock had been in the race, he still would have finished behind Smolej.

Lovelock organising committee member Linley Welford said she would have loved to have seen the result if a strong southerly had not been present.
‘‘[It was] dismal weather, the worst we have encountered for the 19 years of running the event, but the mile in such good time against a strong southerly was exceptional.
‘‘What would he have done if the weather had co-operated? He may have gone under the 4min threshold.’’
Maddie Wilson, the 2024 national heptathlon champion, showed once again why she is one of the country’s top young athletes, setting a new meet record of 1.81m in the high jump and beating Christchurch’s Keeley O’Hagen’s 2024 record of 1.80m.

Timaru’s Tillie Hollyer (Whippets) was back in the women’s mile this year after choosing to focus on other events in 2024.
She immediately showed why her presence had been missed, winning the event with a time of 4 min 50.70sec.

Several other South Canterbury athletes put in strong showings, including Waimate’s Erica Lucas who finished 2nd in the women’s 100m, Timaru’s Joshua Lovely, who took 2nd place in the men’s 800m, and George Guerin who placed 2nd in the men’s B mile.
Veteran athlete and Lovelock mainstay Kieran Fowler (Taieri) once again showed his class, winning the shot put with a throw of 13.99m and the discus with a 49.48m throw.

Despite the weather, Welford said the meet was a success.
‘‘Children numbers in the morning had greatly increased and also senior Lovelock Classic numbers were well up to just over 200. We had five heats of the men’s 100m.’’