Saturday, July 23, 2011

Lagat improves 5,000m American Record

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Monaco - Bernard Lagat improved his own American Record from 12:54.12 to 12:53.60 in the 5,000m at the Herculis Monaco Diamond League meet on Friday.
©PhotoRun


Lagat survived the tightly bunched pack that produced a very physical race, while fellow Americans Galen Rupp and Chris Solinsky did not fare as well and were unable to finish. First Rupp was tripped-up in the crowd and tumbled to the track, then Solinsky was forced off the track by Imane Merga of Ethiopia with less than 800m to go.

Lagat ran at the front of the pack from the early stages of the race, and stayed to the inside with a field that ran five abreast at times. Lagat came through the bell lap in third place, and kicked his way to second place just off the shoulder of Mo Farah of Great Britain. Lagat and Farah sprinted down the straightaway to push each other to national records. Farah took the win in world leading time of 12:53.11, with Lagat finishing a stride behind in 12:53.60.

Other notable American performances included:

Reese Hoffa set a meet record of 21.25m/69-8.75 to win first place. Hoffa threw his winning mark on his fourth throw of the day. Christian Cantwell’s best throw was not far behind in 21.23m/69-8 for second place.

Brittney Reese won the women’s long jump in 6.82m/22-4.5 on her final jump of the day. Reese stays comfortably in first place with 15 series points.

Angelo Taylor won the men’s 400m hurdles in 47.97 over runner-up Bershawn Jackson who crossed the line in 48.22.

In a surprising change of order, Carmelita Jeter won the 200m in a personal best time of 22.20 while Allyson Felix finished second in a season best of 22.32. Shalonda Solomon and Bianaca Knight completed the U.S. sweep of the top four places.

The men’s 800m saw both Nick Symmonds and Khadevis Robinson run to season best times. Symmonds finished third in 1:43.15, and Robinson finished fifth in 1:44.03.

Morgan Uceny delivered another impressive performance in the women’s 1500m, running a personal best time of 4:01.51 to finish third. Jenny Simpson and Shalane Flanagan also ran season bests, with Simpson taking fifth in 4:03.54, and Flanagan taking tenth in 4:06.63.

Billy Nelson ran a personal best by four seconds to take eleventh place in the 3,000m steeplechase in 8:17.

The meet will be broadcast on Universal Sports at 8:00 p.m. ET tonight. Complete results can be found at: http://www.diamondleague-monaco.com/en/Program/Overview/

About USA Track & Field

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