Goucher, Willis, Lagat, Coghlan Comment on Millrose Mile

NEW
YORK – Event organizers on Wednesday hosted a press conference in
advance of the 102nd Millrose Games, which will be run Friday evening
at Madison Square Garden. On hand for Wednesday’s press conference were
defending women’s mile champion Kara Goucher, the 2007 World Outdoor
Championships 10,000m bronze medalist and third-place finisher at the
2008 ING New York City Marathon; Nick Willis of New Zealand, the 2008
Olympic bronze medalist at 1,500m; Bernard Lagat, the six-time
defending Wanamaker Mile champion, two-time Olympic 1,500m medalist and
2007 World Outdoor 1,500m and 5,000m champion; and Eamonn Coghlan, the
“Chairman of the Boards” who won seven Wanamaker Miles from 1977
through 1987.
Below are excerpts from Wednesday’s press conference.

KARA GOUCHER:
I’m very excited to be at
Millrose again. I had so much fun here last year. It’s a great way to
start the year. I’m very excited to be back again. I am training for
the Boston Marathon, but as you can tell, I like to do a lot of
different events. I don’t like to get pigeonholed into one event. This
is a great chance for me to come down in my mileage for a couple of
weeks and really just have some fun. I have done some speed work and I
think I’m ready to defend my title on Friday.
I am running 95 miles
a week, which is backing off a little bit from what I’ll do two weeks
from now when I start my long drive to the marathon. I’m resting a
little bit today and tomorrow to feel a little bit quicker on Friday.
I
just love running in New York. It’s just electric. Whether it’s on the
roads or on the track, people are really into it. I love the city, I
was born here, so I love it and any opportunity I have to run here, I
jump at it.

 

NICK WILLIS:
Just like Kara, it’s a real
privilege to come back to New York City. It seems I have three races
here each season now. Last year I was really left with an awesome
experience at Millrose. I came away ever so close but ever so far,
finishing third behind Lagat and also Craig Mottram. I had a sense that
I wanted to come back here and maybe give myself an opportunity to
start establishing myself on the U.S. scene, and New York is the most
important place to do that. I have a huge, huge respect and regard for
the history and tradition of this race. Eamonn Coghlan is a really
famous guy back in New Zealand because John Walker is one of the most
famous athletes, in any sport, in New Zealand (and the two competed
head-to-head, sometimes twice each weekend, in their heyday). For Lagat
to come along and challenge that, the last few years he’s had to race
(Kenenisa) Bekele, Alban Rotech, Craig Mottram, Ivan Heshko, many of
the greatest runners in the world, and he’s managed to come out on top.
He knows a thing or two about how to run around an 11-lap-to-the-mile
track. Having won a bronze medal last year, I’ve got new things and new
goals I want to aspire to. So it’s really important to me to come
against the guys I think are at the top of the world to help establish
myself as one of those guys also. My goal this year is to win as many
races as possible, but my wife says, no your goal is to win every race
this year. So that is my goal. Friday night, I’ll give my absolute best
to make sure Bernard doesn’t get that record. I think that will make
the race that much better. What fun would it be if he just got an easy
stroll? That’s why I’m here, to give myself a chance to do something
Bernard has done. It’s going to be a pretty exciting race. I think last
year, head-to-head, not that I’m counting, Bernard and I were 3 and 3.
There have been many more times he’s taken me down in the past. He’s
someone I want to learn from. I want to have a long career into my 30s.
Some things I’ve learned along the way I have learned from the current
master of our sport (Lagat) and hopefully I’ll start filling in some of
the shoes he leaves behind, if he ever retires!

BERNARD LAGAT:
You know it’s always fun
coming to New York. I’ve been here for quite some time now. The people
in New York always cheer for me, they always support me. I have to
believe they really love the Wanamaker mile. I get a lot of support
from so many fans at Madison Square Garden. Like Nick said, it’s going
to be hard this time around. Let me go back to 2008, I started well and
beat him (the first three meetings), then he got the best of me at the
end. Hopefully that will start the same way this week and I will win
again. It’s going to be tough. I am looking forward to that for sure.
These
races have had so many meanings in my life. This is a special race for
me. I’ve run so many times and I’ve been able to win a few. Trying to
tie the record of Eamonn Coghlan is really something that has been in
my mind. I remember crossing the line last year and I thought man, this
is the sixth one. The seventh one is going to be another challenge. At
the press conference, I said I am the first one to confirm my
participation in 2009. I am here because I know that I need to see if I
can get to where the respected athlete, Eamonn Coghlan, did. It is a
privilege for me to be here again and be able to run and try to push to
see if I can get that record. It’s not going to be easy but I will try
my best.
From here I’m going to run in Stuttgart, the 3000m, I am
hoping to run something close to the American record of 7:32. Then
another race in France, Lievin, the 1,500m. On the 21st I run in
Birmingham, UK, and I want to close the season by running in Boston in
the U.S. indoor nationals (at 1,500m). I thought why not do it (run
nationals)? I’ve been training so well, I hope I can win all my races.
I
am running 45 miles a week right now, that’s half what Kara is running.
But it’s what I feel like I can handle now, and every mile is a quality
mile, every time when I run on the road. The shorter the things I do,
the better.
 
EAMONN COGHLAN:
It’s a pleasure
to be back in New York, particularly here, across the street from
Madison Square Garden, which was my home for many, many years. I was
thinking as the lads were speaking, Bernard was only about 2 years old
when I won my first Wanamaker, and Nick was only about 2 or 3 years old
when I won my last Wanamaker Mile. The quote I heard Bernard make last
year, that he was going to come back this year to become the
Co-Chairman of the Boards, but then he’d come back in 2010 and become
the President of the Boards. I have no doubt in my mind that Bernard is
one of the greatest indoor milers ever, and I think that he has pursued
the chase of trying to outdo what I did all those many many years ago
says a lot about the respect that he has for this particular event and
for the sport in New York. With all due respect to you, Nick … with
experience and youth, I have to go with experience. Actually I have a
plan with the Irish carpenters at Madison Square Garden to have the
turns loose so maybe they will trip up (Bernard), so (Nick) can go on
to win his first Wanamaker Mile.
In the 22 years since I last won
the race, I have been referred to the Chairman of the Boards every
single day of the week. I think that’s because of the respect for the
Wanamaker Mile. It’s really a fantastic opportunity for me to come back
here to really witness history being equaled and perhaps surpassed next
year. It couldn’t happen to a finer gentleman, should he do it. It’s
also a great thrill to know that if he does become the 7-time winner of
the Wanamaker mile, he will equal something else that I have done. We
both will be a seven-times Wanamaker winners and we both will have been
world champions at 5,000 meters. It’s not going to be easy for Bernard.
It’s his first race out – I would have liked to have been 2 to 3 races
out on the antiquated board track of the Garden. Because it’s both of
their first races, I think it’s going to make it more mysterious as to
who is going to win. It’ll be a really fantastic thrill if Bernard
matches what I have done, because we really need that now. It’s a long
time since I’ve been around and it couldn’t happen to a nicer gentleman.
 

Tickets
for the 2009 Millrose Games are now available at Ticketmaster (call
212-307-7171, visit www.Ticketmaster.com or at Ticketmaster outlets);
at the Madison Square Garden box office or on-line at
www.Millrose-Games.com. USATF welcomes you to pay with your Visa.