Mikey Brannigan, formerly of Northport and now runs for NYAC, became the first American to defend his Paralympic T-20 Title. Brannigan showed undue restraint when the pace went out blisteringly fast. Steve Morris of Great Britain created a 25m lead through the first 800m, but began to fade in the concluding laps.
With 500m to go, Brannigan led a strong contingent of former medalists past Morris, and back in contention for the win. Finally, as we saw characteristically during his HS career, Brannigan dropped the hammer on the field, and pulled away for the win. His winning mark of 3:53.05 is a new Championship Meet Record, but short of Brannigan's own world record of 3:44.39 run last month.
Brannigan has been working one-on-one with live-in coach Sonja Robinson, who helped guide the Brannigan's through the process of classifying and competing in the Paralympics. Brannigan, who had already won two major international titles in the 1500m already, is also entered in the 800m and 5000m, to be run later this week.
