Loaded Middle Distance Fields and World Record Bid Set for Boston

Published by IAAF on February 6, 2014

When there’s already a winning formula in place, you don’t want to tinker with it too much. So the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix, an IAAF Indoor Permit meeting, on Saturday (8) will feature world and Olympic medallists in the 3000m, two miles, one mile, and 1000m, as well as an attack on the world indoor 4x800m record – a mark set at this meeting back in 2000.

The meeting, which has traditionally centred on strong fields and occasional record attempts in the middle and long distances, is now in its 19th year at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in Boston’s Roxbury neighbourhood.

Three medallists, two miles

The closing race of the meeting is often the longest men’s race, but this year’s honour has gone to an unusually deep women’s two-mile, which will include three World Championships medallists: Jenny Simpson, who won 1500m gold in 2011 and silver in 2013; Shannon Rowbury, a 1500m bronze medallist in 2009; and Sally Kipyego, silver medallist at 10,000m in 2011 and at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Simpson was one of the first athletes announced for the meeting, back in December, and coming off her third-place finish at the Cinque Mulini cross-country race might be the most race sharp of this trio.

However, Simpson also has a longstanding and very friendly rivalry with Kipyego dating back to their days in the NCAA, and if Kipyego thinks herself fit to race, she will see herself nowhere far behind Simpson.

Loaded 3000m

Much of the pre-meeting buzz has surrounded the men’s 3000m, which has taken on an unusual depth. Two globally-known names familiar to the Boston crowd are Hagos Gebrhiwet, who ran the world junior indoor record here last year before his devastating win in the junior race at the World Cross-Country Championships, and Dejen Gebremeskel, the Olympic silver medallist who won a thrilling duel with Mo Farah here in 2011 after losing his right shoe early in the race.

The two Ethiopians will be joined by Garrett Heath, who knocked off Asbel Kiprop and Kenenisa Bekele in the 4km cross-country race in Edinburgh in January, along with a selection of hungry young talents hoping to be the next Hagos Gebrhiwet.

Record-setting Rupp and Cain

Mary Cain and Galen Rupp, two more names already associated with both Boston and records this young indoor season, are scheduled to hit the track on Saturday.

Cain, who lowered the world junior indoor 1000m record to 2:39.25 in January on the Boston University track, will be racing the same distance on Saturday. Her record mark was achieved in an effort to challenge the ten-year-old US indoor record of 2:34.19 by Jen Toomey.

This time, she’ll have competition from the likes of Ajee Wilson (like Cain, a finalist in Moscow last summer), Treniere Moser, and Chanelle Price, as well as Kenyan Viola Lagat and Ethiopia’s Dureti Edao. Pacing the women’s 1000m is Canada’s world heptathlon silver medallist Brianne Theisen Eaton, who will also contest the long jump.