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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
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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