EUGENE, Ore. – Bernard Lagat and Lukas Verzbicas were back on the same track again here over the weekend, just as they were at the Armory in February. This time, it was for the Prefontaine Classic, the legendary invitational meet held here at the University of Oregon every spring.
The meet is part of the international IAAF Diamond League series of meets, of which two are held in the United States. The other, the adidas Grand Prix, will be this coming Saturday at Randalls Island. That mini-fortnight represents most of the international track scene in the United States today.
For Lagat and Verzbicas, it was a reunion of sorts at the same distance, 2 miles. Here on Saturday, Lagat, now 36 years old, was trying for his fifth victory, at three different distances, in this highly competitive meet. (He has won the mile, the 3k and the 2-mile, dating back to 2003.) For Verzbicas, half Lagat’s age, born in Lithuania and about to graduate from Carl Sandburg High School in Illinois, it was an attempt to break the national high school outdoor record, set three years ago by Californian German Fernandez at 8:34.40.
(On a Saturday night in February, the two of them came to New York to run the 2-mile at the Armory. Lagat was trying for the 22-year-old American record, Verzbicas the 47-year-old national high school record. It was the Armory debut for both. Lagat succeeded, Verbizcas fell short.)
Here on Saturday, on an unusually warm Oregon day at a boisterous Hayward Field, the race went out at 59 seconds for the first of eight laps. “I was intimidated,” Verzbicas told Doug Binder of The Oregonian. “You’ve got world champions, you’ve got Olympic medalists here.”
Verzbicas moved to the back and gradually fell away to his own pace, running alongside a designated helper, Stephen Haas. He came through the first mile in 4:14.5, on pace for the record, and soon all eyes trained on him, in part because he has signed with Oregon and will be a Duck in the fall.
“The crowd was amazing,” Verzbicas said. “I was not expecting to get such attention. I feel so honored. This was really fun and cool.”
Eventually, both won. Lagat, with a big kick, won the race in 8:13.62. Haas dropped off with two laps left, Verzbicas closed with a 61, finished last, and ran 8:29.46 for the record.
“Nothing impresses me more than to see a young guy who is not afraid to just go out there and try to do his best,” Lagat said of Verzbicas. “When he came in there, running hard towards the end, I wanted to tell him, ‘Congratulations.’”
Verzbicas said, “I just thought ‘Do not slow down. Give it all you’ve got. Give everything.’”
With the U.S. Nationals just three weeks away, the American athletes here were testing to see where they stand in the chase for spots on the national team to this summer’s World Championships.
Natasha Hastings, for one, was facing three of her leading domestic rivals in the 400, in the same week in which she had a big announcement about another part of her professional career – modeling.
Though running in Lane 1, Hastings had a solid showing, running 51.85 for 5th but within half a second of Debbie Dunn (51.37), Allyson Felix (51.41) and Sanya Richards-Ross (51.78). In an upset, the race was won by Amantle Montsho, of Botswana, in 50.59.
A few days earlier, word came out that the 24-year-old Hastings – PSAL champion for A. P. Randolph H.S., NCAA champion for the University of South Carolina and now a resident of Atlanta – has signed a modeling contract with the fashion agency Wilhelmina, according to the Ella Bee Social Media and Public Relations firm.
“I am such a girly girl, and it’s an honor to join Wilhelmina,” Hastings said.
The New York Athletic Club had big news in the meet, as Jillian Camarena-Williams, who competes for the club in the shot put, had an outdoor lifetime best, 64-10, the longest by an American woman in 23 years and the 2nd-best ever by an American. Ramona Pagel set the American record of 66-2 ½ in 1988.
“I was very consistent today,” said Camarena-Williams, a native Californian who now lives in Utah with her husband, who is a coach at BYU. “I’ve just been really training well. Everything was easy, it felt good.
“It was great to come out and have a great crowd and people that know track. So that when you have a big throw, they go, ‘Yaaay.’ It’s really exciting. It’s definitely a big environment.”
Camarena-Williams finished 2nd to Nadezhda Ostapchuk of Belarus, who had a world-leading put of 67-6 ¾. “She obviously is the top of the world right now,” Camarena-Williams said of Ostapchuk. “So I’m just chasing her and trying to get up there.”
In the women’s 5,000 on Friday night, the AC’s Liz Maloy finished 12th, in 15:40.20. Shalane Flanagan, who openly said she was going for the American record, missed by 5 seconds, running 14:49.68. In the men’s 10k that followed, Mo Farah, a native Somalian who now runs for Great Britain but lives and trains in Portland, Ore., broke the European and British records, winning the race in 26:46.57. The first nine runners all broke 27:00. There were no American finishers in the race.
In the women’s 1,500, Morgan Uceny, who won an indoor Heps title for Cornell on the Armory track, was the top-finishing American, running 4:06.32 for 3rd place. Uceny, 26, now lives and trains in the mountains of Southern California. The Georgetown graduate Treniere Moser finished 7th, in 4:07.57.
One world record was set over the weekend. On Friday evening in the rarely run track 30k, Moses Mosop of Kenya ran 1:26:47.4 to break the old record by two and a half minutes. His time is an average of better than 29:00 for every 10k. Worku Beyi, an Ethiopian who lives in the Bronx, failed to finish the race.
Now comes the championship season. The NCAA Division I championships begin their four-day run on Wednesday at Drake University, in Des Moines, Iowa. The USATF Junior and Senior nationals will be June 23-26, right here in Eugene.
photo courtesy PhotoRun.net
Verzbicas broke German Fernandez's record of 8:34.40 set at Nike Outdoor in 2008. ArmoryTrack.com was there when it happened. ARTICLE HERE
Bernard Lagat claimed his fifth American indoor record by erasing Doug Padilla’s time of 8:15.02 set in 1990, in a showcase race set up for record chases. High school distance phenom Lukas Verzbicas, who went after the high school national record, instead clocked the third-fastest time in American history, 8:43.24. - 2011-02-13 10:57:00
NEW YORK – Lukas Verzbicas didn’t get exactly what he wanted. But there isn’t much more he could ask for. The Carl Sandberg (Ill.) senior started his weekend record assault Friday at the New Balance Indoor Nationals by breaking his own national record in the 5,000 meters in 14:06.78. - 2011-03-11 22:40:00
