LAGAT POWERS TO SEVENTH MILLROSE TITLE
By David Monti
(c) 2009 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved. Used wth permission.
NEW YORK (31-Jan) -- It's official: the boards now have two chairmen.
Retaking
the lead after a late-race surge by New Zealand's Nick Willis, two-time
Olympic medalist Bernard Lagat powered to his seventh Wanamaker Mile
title at the 102nd Millrose Games here tonight, equaling the feat of
Irishman Eamonn Coghlan, the famed Chairman of the Boards.
Lagat,
of Tucson, Ariz., whose previous seven appearances at the Millrose
Games gave him more experience on Madison Square Garden's quirky 145.5m
banked track than the other five men in the field combined, followed
pacemaker Adam Perkins through the first quarter in a swift 56.9
seconds. The two men opened a slight gap on Willis and the rest of the
field, but when the pace sagged in the second quarter (1:56.9 at 880
yards), Willis closed up on Lagat, planning his next move carefully.
"It
went pretty much to plan," said Willis, the 1500m bronze medalist a the
Beijing Olympics. "I purposely held back. I decided to wait."
It
takes 11 laps to cover the mile at the Garden, and with two circuits to
go Lagat was still leading. Willis waited until the backstretch to
pounce, getting by the man he beat at last September's Continental
Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile here and was the first to answer the bell.
"I
was prepared out there," said Lagat who knew there was still time to
react to Willis's move, if only just. "I had enough reserve in the
tank. I knew something like that was going to happen."
Lagat
went outside, running shoulder-to-shoulder with Willis through the
first two turns of the final lap, before pulling away from his rival on
the backstretch to win in 3:58.44, the second-slowest winning time the
former Kenyan had posted at these Games. Willis finished second in
3:59.48.
Lagat was thrilled that Coghlan was on hand to see him
win and present him with the special Waterford Crystal bowl given to
the meet's top performer. "This is not any other race for me," said
Lagat. "This race means a lot. I have so much respect for Eamonn."
Like
Lagat, Kara Goucher of Portland, Ore., also defended her title in the
New York Road Runners Women's Mile. Goucher, who made her marathon
debut here last November and set a USA debut record of 2:25:53, had
already opened up a big lead with four laps to go, and was never
seriously challenged. She won by more than four seconds in a personal
best 4:33.19, pretty good for a runner doing 95 mile weeks ahead of
April's Boston Marathon.
"I love being in New York," Goucher
said over the public address system to the delight of the 11,543 fans
in attendance. "It's the greatest city in the world."
Goucher
said that the mile gave her positive feedback about her marathon
training. "The mile tells me that I'm not doing too much," she
explained. Then, joking about her coach Alberto Salazar she said,
"Apparently, he's not pushing me enough."
There was also
spirited competition in the high school miles. In the girls' race,
Jillian Smith of Manahawkin, N.J., took the lead with four laps to go
and trounced the field in 4:51.88, to defend her title.
"I
wasn't really aiming for the record," said Smith referring to Sarah
Schwald's 20 year-old meet record of 4:49.94. "I was just going for
the win."
With an explosive move with 150 meters to go,
Manalapan High School's Robby Andrews dominated the final lap of the
boy's high school mile to win by more than two seconds in 4:17.42.
Andrews was beaten to second place here last year, and was clearly
thrilled with his victory tonight.
"It's all worth it, all the hard work" he said of his training. "It's great to finally have the victory."
Outside
the middle distance events, the most compelling performance was by pole
vaulter Steven Hooker of Australia, the Beijing Olympics gold
medalist. Hooker cleared 6.01m on his first attempt, a Madison Square
Garden and Australian record, then thrilled the crowd with three good
attempts at 6.16m, which would have been a new world record. Adam
Nelson won the shot put in 20.79m on his final throw, and Jenn
Stuczynski won the women's pole vault in a world leading 4.71m.