Lagat/Rupp to Clash at Reebok Boston Indoor 5000

Lagat to battle Rupp in Boston

INDIANAPOLIS
– Bernard Lagat looks to keep up his winning ways after a
record-setting performance last weekend in the Big Apple. Fans will
find out if he can Saturday night, February 6, at the Reebok Boston
Indoor Games at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center at Roxbury
Community College.
 
The Reebok Boston Indoor Games is the second
stop of USA Track & Field’s Visa Championship Series. The meet will
be televised Sunday, February 7, on ESPN2 from 2-4 p.m. Eastern Time.
 
A
two-time Olympic medalist and the 2007 double world champion, Bernard
Lagat faces a tough field in the men’s 5,000m. Competing in his first
Visa Championship Series event since turning professional last summer,
Galen Rupp will challenge Lagat for the top honor. Over the course of
the 2008-09 season, Rupp won six NCAA titles and set the American
indoor record over 5,000m at last year’s Tyson Invitational, running
13:18.12. Also watch for Bekana Daba (ETH), the man who beat Rupp at
the Tyson Invitational last year in 13:17.89, and 2009 NCAA XC champion
Sam Chalenga, who took third at the Tyson event.
 
Reigning
national 100m champion Michael Rodgers headlines the field in the Visa
men’s 60m. He will be challenged by last week’s Millrose Games winner,
Ivory Williams, who wants to prove that last week’s victory was not a
fluke. 2008 Olympic Games 100 and 200m bronze medalist Walter Dix is
back on the scene, looking for redemption after a disappointing
injury-plagued 2009 season that saw him compete in only a handful of
races. Also watch for two-time World Outdoor 400m hurdle champion and
’08 Olympic silver medalist Kerron Clement.
 
This will be Lisa
Barber’s first race in Boston in 11 months. In that time she has run
(and won) one race.  It was after winning the 2009 USA Indoor 60m title
at the Reggie Lewis Center that Barber realized she had torn her
Achilles. Barber returned to the track with a vengeance last week to
win the Millrose Games 60m. She will square off this weekend with
two-time Olympian Muna Lee, 2008 Olympian and 2006 NCAA Indoor champion
Marshevet (Hooker) Myers and 2008 NCAA Indoor 200m champion Bianca
Knight.
 
Current world leader Terrence Trammell will be aiming
for his second win in as many races when he hits the track in Boston in
the men’s 60m hurdles. One of the most dominant hurdlers in the world
over the past 10 years, Trammell has twice won the Visa Indoor
Championship and has two World Indoor gold medals to his name. 2005
World Outdoor champion Ladji Doucour̩ (FRA) and 2006 NCAA Outdoor
champion Aries Merritt will look to challenge Trammell for the win.
 
2008
Olympic silver medalist Nick Willis (NZL) is the man to beat in the
Reebok men’s mile. And three-time Team USA team member Leo Manzano
hopes to be the man to do it. Also entered is Manzano’s training
partner and former Texas teammate, Jacob Hernandez, the 2008 NCAA
Outdoor 800m champion.
 
Competing in her first indoor season
since turning professional back in 2006, two-time USA Outdoor champion
Ginnie Powell will once again race Canadian Indoor and Outdoor record
holder Perdita Felicien and 2008 NCAA Indoor and Outdoor champion
Tiffany Ofili. At the Millrose Games, it was Ofili over Powell,
followed by Felicien. This time out they will also face 2008 Olympic
Games fourth-place finisher Damu Cherry.
 
Fresh off his win at
the Millrose Games, two-time World Outdoor 400m hurdles medalist and
’08 Olympic Games bronze medalist Bershawn Jackson headlines a field in
the MBTA men’s 400m that includes 2009 World Outdoor 400m bronze
medalist Renny Quow (TRI), who finished third at Millrose, and
four-time World Outdoor 4x400m medalist Chris Brown (BAH). On the
women’s side, Monica Hargrove will be challenged by 2008 World Indoor
bronze medalist Shareese Woods and 2004 Olympic and two-time World
Outdoor 4x400m gold medalist DeeDee Trotter.
 
1,500m runners
lead the way in the women’s 3,000m race. 2009 World Outdoor 1,500m
bronze medalist Shannon Rowbury will face Christin Wurth-Thomas, who
ranked #5 in the world last year over 1,500m. Their main challenge
should come from Great Britain’s Hannah England, who won the women’s
Millrose mile last week and ended her 2009 campaign ranked #10 in the
world by T&FN. Also keep an eye on former Villanova standout
Frances Koons, who battled back from kidney cancer to return to running.
 
World-ranked
#2 in the 800, and #6 in the 1,500 by Track & Field News for
2009,Anna (Willard) Pierce leads the field in the Visa women’s 1,000m.
 Three-time USA Outdoor 1,500m champion Treniere (Clement) Moser and
2008 Olympian Erin Donohue are also entered. In the Reebok women’s
200m, 2006 NCAA Indoor and Outdoor 200m champion Shalonda Solomon will
face 2008 Olympic 400m hurdles silver medalist Sheena Tosta.
 
Mark
Hollis, 2008 Olympic Games fourth-lace finisher Derek Miles and 2004
Olympic gold medalist Tim Mack return to the pit this week after
placing 1,2,3, respectively, at the Millrose Games. It was the first
win of Hollis’ professional career. Also entered is 2009 USA Indoor
champion Jeremy Scott. The women’s field will be headlined by 2009
World Outdoor silver medalist Chelsea Johnson. Also in the field will
be current world-leader Lacy Janson, 2007 Pan Am silver medalist April
Steiner Bennett and Becky Holliday, who took second at the Millrose
Games last weekend.
 
The 2008 Olympic champion at 5,000 and
10,000m and an eight-time World champion (Outdoor and Cross Country),
Tirunesh “the baby-faced destroyer” Dibaba (ETH) will be chasing the
world record in the women’s 5,000m. She has dominated the 5,000m at the
Reebok Boston Indoor Games in recent years, twice setting the world
record (2005, 2007). In 2009, Dibaba’s main rival and countrywoman,
Meseret Defar, broke the 5,000m world indoor record running 14:24.37 in
Stockholm, and now Dibaba will try to take it back. 
 
For ticket
information for the Reebok Boston Indoor Games visit
www.bostonindoorgames.com or call call 1-877-TIX-TRAC (849-8722). 
USATF welcomes you to pay with your Visa.
 
For more information
on the 2010 Reebok Boston Indoor Games and the 2010 Visa Championship
Series, visit www.visachampionshipseries.com.

About USA Track & Field
 
USA
Track & Field (USATF) is the National Governing Body for track and
field, long-distance running and race walking in the United States.
USATF encompasses the world’s oldest organized sports, some of the
most-watched events of Olympic broadcasts, the #1 high school and
junior high school participatory sport and more than 30 million adult
runners in the United States.
 
For more information on USATF, visit
www.usatf.org
 

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