Galen Rupp's American 2-Mile Record Is Highlight Among 5 World Leaders At 2012 USATF Track Classic

By LetsRun.com
February 11, 2012

On a night five world leaders (men's 2-mile, men's mile, men's and women's 60s, men's 400) were set, including one by Silas Kiplagat in the mile, Galen Rupp's super-impressive 8:09.72 American record in the two-mile stole the show at the USATF Classic in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Rupp's Impressive 8:09.72 Honors Geoff Hollister
Rupp toed the track unaware that just minutes before, halfway across the country at the Millrose Games, Bernard Lagat had taken away his American indoor 5,000m record. The goal for Rupp was Lagat's 8:10.07 American record set last year.

Former Wisconsin Badger Craig Miller served as Rupp's rabbit for the first 1,800m. Miller was followed by Rupp and then Worlds 5,000m team member Andrew Bumbalough. No one else in the field was brave enough to go with the fast pace, as there soon was a gap to Aron Rono and then another gap to the rest of the field.

The opening quarter mile was 61 seconds. The half mile was 2:03. 3/4 was 3:05 and change (the splits are estimates, as with the race being 2 miles, it was 16 laps plus an extra 18.7 meters or 60 feet). By the time Rupp hit the mile 4:06.7, Andrew Bumbalough had fallen back. Miller made it one more lap and now it was Rupp against the clock.

To the casual observer, the 4:06.7 opening mile was too slow for Rupp to get the record, as he needed to average 4:05 and now had to run all alone. However, the plan was for Rupp to run a negative split and coach Alberto Salazar, who was trackside, was yelling at Rupp telling him he was right on pace.

The former Oregon Duck and current American record holder at 10,000m kept grinding it out. 2,000m was in 5:07.1, 2,400m in 6:08.6. Could Rupp run 2:01 by himself the final 800+?

With a quarter to go, Rupp was at 7:10.2. He would have to pick it up to get the record. The Arkansas crowd realized he had a chance and got behind him. Rupp blitzed the final lap in 28.86 to cross the line in 8:09.72. The American record was his.

Rupp Showing Hollister Jersey

Rupp Was Sick But Went After Record To Honor Hollister
Afterwards, Alberto Salazar said that Rupp got sick yesterday and was on antibiotics so there was some doubt whether Rupp could break the record. Alberto and Galen wanted to break the record to honor Geoff Hollister. Hollister, a former Nike executive (nicknamed Employee #3 at Nike) who helped create the Athletics West track club Alberto was a part of, lost his long battle with cancer this week. Since Galen was dedicating this race to Geoff, there was never any thought of not going for the record. Alberto told Dan O'Brien of ESPN that he told Galen, "Geoff isn't going to care if you get the record or not; all he's going to care is if you give it 110%." Thus the plan according to Alberto was "to go for it. If he died, he died."

Galen definitely went for it, especially the final 1,200m after Miller dropped out (the key split may have been the 59.42 Rupp ran from 1,618 m to 2,018 meters - Miller ran the first lap of this to help get the negative split rolling). As Galen said, "It was all about effort. That was what Geoff wanted" and "This was a special race ... Just give it 100% and go for it from beginning to end." On the final quarter mile, Galen said, "It was tough. I was having doubts too" and later added, "I knew it was going to be very hard coming in ... I couldn't take my foot off the gas." Galen kept it floored and was rewarded with the American record.

Coach Alberto Salazar was pleased afterwards, so pleased that he cancelled Galen's normal tempo workout after the race and joked to the crowd that Galen could celebrate with a lemonade instead of doing his workout.

Galen Talks About The Record

Galen earned the right to celebrate, as the day belonged to him and Geoff Hollister. Galen summed it up best (interview on the left):

    "It was great. I was real happy. Any time you break the American record is a great day. I didn't feel good the last couple of days coming in so I slept a ton. You know I had to go for broke to do it for Geoff. As much as he's done for the sport ... He's was the guy who kind of started our running groups in the country."

****
We caught up with Andrew Bumbalough afterwards. Bumbalough held on to finish in second place in a well-beaten 8:30.05. We asked him whether this race was just too fast for him and he didn't have anyone to run with. He said that was not the case and he had hoped to run with Rupp and be competitive, in an ideal world still sitting there with 200m to go. Bumbalough said he believes his fitness is at another level this year. He has already run 3:58 for the mile this year, and also paced teammate Simon Bairu through 15+ miles at the Houston Marathon. Bumbalough had never run that far at that fast a pace but told us he felt like he could have run 5 more miles. He hopes the extra endurance and his speed pays off in a big way this year. The fact he said he was hoping to be competitive with Rupp shows his new confidence. Bumbalough said he does not have plans to run USA indoors but would like to run another indoor race.

****
While Galen Rupp in the interview above said he wanted to keep some of his plans to himself, coach Alberto Salazar indicated the plan for Rupp is to run the 3,000m at the USA Championships in two weeks and then to run the World Indoor Championships. If Bernard Lagat runs as well, the US will have a tremendous team, assuming they both make it.

1 Galen Rupp   USA 8:09.72 American Record          
 2 Andrew Bumbalough   USA 8:30.05            
 3 Aron Rono   KEN 8:37.36            
 4 Stephen Pifer   USA 8:40.55            
 5 Michael Coe   USA 8:45.37            
 6 Tim Ritchie   USA 8:53.86            
 DNF Craig Miller   USA              

The old record of 8:10.07 almost lasted a full year. It was set on February 12, 2011.

Update: Flash Results has full splits from the finish. Note Rupp ran sub-60 from 1,618m to 2,018m after running his slowest lap right before that.

Athlete Name 218m 418m 618m 818m 1018m 1218m 1418m 1618m 1818m 2018m 2218m 2418m 2618m 2818m 3018m 2 Mile
Galen Rupp
USA
34.38
(0) 34.38
1:04.84
(0) 30.46
1:35.35
(0) 30.51
2:06.07
(0) 30.72
2:36.47
(0) 30.41
3:07.15
(0) 30.68
3:37.82
(0) 30.68
4:08.80
(0) 30.98
4:38.50
(0) 29.71
5:08.21
(0) 29.71
5:38.69
(0) 30.48
6:09.51
(0) 30.83
6:40.21
(0) 30.70
7:10.69
(0) 30.48
7:40.87
(0) 30.18
8:09.72
(0) 28.86
Andrew Bumbalough
USA
34.67
(0) 34.67
1:05.12
(0) 30.45
1:35.58
(0) 30.46
2:06.34
(0) 30.77
2:36.71
(0) 30.37
3:07.51
(0) 30.81
3:38.34
(0) 30.84
4:10.26
(0) 31.92
4:43.02
(0) 32.77
5:15.63
(0) 32.61
5:48.42
(0) 32.80
6:21.68
(0) 33.26
6:54.36
(0) 32.68
7:26.87
(0) 32.52
7:59.17
(0) 32.30
8:30.05
(0) 30.88
Aron Rono
KEN
35.19
(0) 35.19
1:05.44
(0) 30.26
1:35.94
(0) 30.50
2:06.76
(0) 30.83
2:38.08
(0) 31.32
3:10.09
(0) 32.01
3:43.00
(0) 32.91
4:16.13
(0) 33.13
4:49.52
(0) 33.40
5:22.55
(0) 33.04
5:55.59
(0) 33.04
6:29.16
(0) 33.57
7:03.09
(0) 33.93
7:35.99
(0) 32.91
8:07.61
(0) 31.62
8:37.36
(0) 29.76
Stephen Pifer
USA
34.97
(0) 34.97
1:06.08
(0) 31.12
1:37.90
(0) 31.82
2:09.55
(0) 31.65
2:41.26
(0) 31.72
3:13.46
(0) 32.21
3:45.80
(0) 32.35
4:18.51
(0) 32.71
4:51.35
(0) 32.84
5:23.73
(0) 32.39
5:56.40
(0) 32.67
6:29.41
(0) 33.01
7:02.81
(0) 33.41
7:36.29
(0) 33.49
8:07.97
(0) 31.69
8:40.55
(0) 32.58
Michael Coe
USA
35.44
(0) 35.44
1:06.43
(0) 30.99
1:38.03
(0) 31.61
2:09.73
(0) 31.71
2:41.47
(0) 31.74
3:13.65
(0) 32.19
3:45.98
(0) 32.33
4:18.35
(0) 32.38
4:51.12
(0) 32.77
5:24.16
(0) 33.05
5:57.72
(0) 33.57
6:31.98
(0) 34.27
7:05.69
(0) 33.71
7:39.49
(0) 33.81
8:11.60
(0) 32.11
8:45.37
(0) 33.78
Tim Ritchie
USA
35.37
(0) 35.37
1:06.23
(0) 30.86
1:37.73
(0) 31.51
2:09.29
(0) 31.56
2:41.05
(0) 31.77
3:13.27
(0) 32.23
3:46.14
(0) 32.87
4:18.81
(0) 32.68
4:51.66
(0) 32.85
5:24.45
(0) 32.80
5:58.00
(0) 33.55
6:32.59
(0) 34.60
7:07.31
(0) 34.72
7:42.32
(0) 35.01
8:18.51
(0) 36.19
8:53.86
(0) 35.36
Craig Miller
USA
34.16
(0) 34.16
1:04.64
(0) 30.48
1:35.15
(0) 30.51
2:05.85
(0) 30.70
2:36.27
(0) 30.43
3:06.95
(0) 30.69
3:37.65
(0) 30.70
4:08.60
(0) 30.95
4:38.56
(0) 29.97
             

Geoff Hollister Men's Mile Lives Up To Pre Race Hype As Silas Kiplagat Edges Caleb Ndiku In World-Leading 3:52.63

In our pre-race preview, we debated whether this was the most stacked indoor mile in the United States since LetsRun.com was founded in 2000. No one has disproved the statement yet.

The race featured sub-3:30 1,500m runners Silas Kiplagat (silver medallist at Worlds last year), Amine Laalou, and Dan Komen (two world indoor silvers) plus young Kenyan upstart and 3:49 miler Caleb Ndiku (world junior 1,500 and XC champ).

The race lived up to its hype. Rabbit Jack Bolas led the field through the half mile in 1:57.3 and then went one more lap before letting the stars race for the glory. This entire field remained within 1 second of each other until the final quarter mile when the real racing started. Kiplagat, Ndiku, Komen and American Russell Brown were at the front throughout. At the bell, the three Kenyans had opened a slight gap on Brown and by the backstretch, it was a two-man race.

Ndiku had powered to the lead and Kiplagat was still giving chase (sequence of photos here). Ndiku still led around the final curve. Kiplagat came wide, but Ndiku still led down the short final straightaway. Kiplagat had very little real estate to work with but he refused to quit. He pulled alongside Ndiku and as they leaned at the line, Kiplagat raised his hand signaling victory. The margin was only .03, but Kiplagat knew he was the champ. His 3:52.63 was a world leader. Komen held off Brown in third, as Brown ran 3:54.08, an indoor PR.

Amine Laalou, the other big gun in the field, never was far back, but never was a factor (in a tightly bunched raced, when the kicking starts you'd better be near the front, unless your name is Jenny Barringer)

****Ndiku Wants To Run 3,000m At World Indoors, Kiplagat Will Run 1,500 If Selected, But Focus Is On London
Employee #1 is in Kenya right now and says coach Renato Canova believes his athlete Ndiku is one of the few Kenyans with enough speed for the London 5,000m. Ndiku showed that speed here by pushing Kiplagat to the line. Ndiku also has endurance as shown by his 3,000m win last week in Boston. Ndiku says the plan is go back to Kenya and then run a faster 3,000m hoping to make the Kenyan team for World Indoors. Silas Kiplagat is also going back to Kenya. He will run World Indoors if selected, but for him the focus is on getting gold in the Olympics. Then he can worry about running faster (in his first race in Europe ever he ran his 3:29.27 PR)

Silas Kiplagat After His World Leader

Caleb Ndiku After Narrow Loss To Kiplagat

****Russell Brown On His PR, Leo On His Opener
Russell Brown started off last year with a 3:54.81 win in Boston. Last week in Boston, Brown didn't break 4:00 as he was caught up in the Mo Farah fall and while he didn't go down, he didn't react well afterwards. Brown bounced back nicely here and said he realizes some will be pondering once again if Russell is running fast indoors instead of outdoors when it matters most. He understands the criticism but says he is doing new things in training under coach Vin Lananna and is excited for the season (interview below). Someone had to get last in the star-studded field and it was American Leo Manzano in a respectable 3:57.92. Leo was fresh off from training in Mexico and, while not pleased with last place, he felt fine with 3:57 in the opener. After an inconsistent 2011, Leo said he is back working with his strength coach from the University of Texas and hopes to put all the pieces together this year.

Russell Brown After His Indoor PR Says He Has More For Outdoors

Leo Manzano On His Changes For 2012

1 Silas Kiplagat   KEN 3:52.63            
 2 Caleb Ndiku   KEN 3:52.66            
 3 Daniel Kipchichir Komen   KEN 3:53.93            
 4 Russell Brown   USA 3:54.08            
 5 Amine Laalou   MAR 3:54.49            
 6 Ciaran O'Lionard   IRL 3:54.76            
 7 Jeff See   USA 3:55.47            
 8 Leo Manzano   USA 3:57.92            
 DNF Craig Miller   USA              
 DNS Duncan Phillips   Arkansas              

*Splits Here

Women's 1,500m: Brenda Martinez Makes It Interesting

Brenda Martinez started off the Visa Championship series with a convincing 4:34 win in Madison Square Garden at the US Open. She faced a much more formidable field here that included Btissam Lakhouad, who won the 1,000m last week in Boston and was fourth at Worlds at 1,500m.

Rabbit Mardrea Hyman took this one out hard (48.36 at 300m) and was well clear of the field. Martinez, after the first quarter, started to give chase and no one else went with her. With 4 laps to go, Martinez (1:59.27) had nearly caught Hyman and opened up a 10-meter gap on the rest of the field. With 400m to go (3:04.98), Martinez had extended her lead to 12 meters on the field, which was led by 2008 Olympic finalist Siham Hilali of Morocco.

Would Martinez be able to hold on the final quarter? With 200m to go, she was still roughly 11 meters in front. It's a pretty big distance but was only 1.86 seconds. On the backstretch, Hilali and Lakhouad started closing fast. Martinez maintained her pace but was not able to go any faster. She still led around the final bend but on the final straight, both Hilali and Lakhouad came by. Hilali got the win in 4:09.36 ahead of Lakhouad and Martinez. 3 time US champ Treniere Moser was 5th in 4:12.71 and sub-4 1,500m runner Anna Pierce was 7th in 4:13.

We talked to three-time US Champ Trenier Moser afterwards. Believe it or not, when Moser won USAs in 2005, she was the only women to represent the US at the World Champs. Now the US is the top 1,500m country in the world and Moser is trying to break through herself to make the Olympic team. She is now part of John Cook's group in Austin and hopes if she can stay healthy she can make the jump atop the US ranks.

Anna Pierce, training parnter of world #1 Jenny Barringer, said she is still making progress on regaining her 2009 form and wants to run a couple of races in Europe before calling it an indoor season. Our apologies for not talking to Brenda Martinez. The men's mile was immediately after this race.

1 Siham Hilali   MAR 4:09.36            
 2 Btissam Lakhouad   MAR 4:09.72            
 3 Brenda Martinez   USA 4:09.96            
 4 Tizita Bogale   ETH 4:10.89            
 5 Treniere Moser   USA 4:12.71            
 6 Sara Vaughn   USA 4:13.12       [4:13.113]    
 7 Anna Pierce   USA 4:13.12       [4:13.118]    
 8 Stephanie Brown   Arkansas 4:15.38            
 9 Heather Kampf   USA 4:16.76            
 10 Ashley Higginson   USA 4:20.16            
 DNF Mardrea Hyman   USA

Men's 400m: Kirani James Needs World Leader To Get Win

Demetrius Pinder ran a fast 45.40 in the first heat. That put the pressure on World Champion King Kirani James, but he responded with a World Leader 45.19 to get the win.

1 Kirani James   GRN 45.19         0.160  2 (1)
 2 Demetrius Pinder   BAH 45.40         0.180  1 (1)
 3 Calvin Smith   USA 45.73         0.166  2 (2)
 4 Joshua Scott   USA 46.35         0.167  1 (2)
 5 Jamaal Torrence   USA 46.51         0.152  2 (3)
 6 David Neville   USA 47.94         0.181  2 (4)
 DQ Tabari Henry   ISV           0.167 

Women's 60m Hurdles: Ginnie Crawford Beats 3 Olympic/World Champs; Joanna Hayes' Comeback Begins

Dawn Harper won the 2008 Olympics, Michelle Perry won the 2005 and 2007 Worlds, Joanna Hayes won the 2004 Olympics. Yet the winner here was Ginnie Crawford (Ginnie Powell at USC, she's married to sprinter Shawn Crawford). This was Joanna Hayes' first race since 2008 as she makes a comeback.

1 Ginnie Crawford   USA 7.97         0.181   
 2 Dawn Harper   USA 8.03         0.168   
 3 Phylicia George   CAN 8.16         0.167   
 4 Nikkita Holder   CAN 8.17         0.163   
 5 Michelle Perry   USA 8.19         0.162   
 6 Joanna Hayes   USA 8.34         0.134   
 7 Tenaya Jones   USA 8.37         0.176   
 8 Hyleas Fountain   USA 8.51         0.157 

Jamaica's 8th-Fastest 100m Man Wins

America needs Tyson Gay back. Lerone Clark was Jamaica's 8th-fastest 100m man last year (7th if you exclude druggie Steve Mullings), yet he got the win here.

 1 Lerone Clarke   JAM 6.52         0.150   
 2 Justin Gatlin   USA 6.57       [6.561] 0.149   
 3 Trell Kimmons   USA 6.57       [6.564] 0.141   
 4 Gerald Phiri   ZAM 6.59         0.161   
 5 Doc Patton   USA 6.65         0.150   
 6 Deangelo Cherry   Mississippi State 6.66         0.196   
 7 Ivory Williams   USA 6.72         0.147   
 DNF Richard Thompson   TRI           0.162   

 

Tianna Madison (She's A World Champ) Pulls Upset In 60m over VCB And Allyson Felix

The 60 featured Veronica Campbell Brown, the top sprinter in the world, and Allyson Felix. Getting the win in a world-leading time was Tianna Madison, who won the Worlds long jump while in college at Tennessee in 2005. She hasn't done a ton since then but is showing great speed this year (if anyone knows why she didn't jump at USATFs last year, email us).

Janay Deloach Upsets 2-Time World Champ Brittney Reese

1 Janay DeLoach   USA 6.83m 22-5     6.68m
(1) 21-11
6.83m
(1) 22-5
6.62m
(1) 21-8 ¾
6.65m
(1) 21-10
 
 
 2 Bianca Stuart   BAH 6.79m 22-3 ½     6.53m
(2) 21-5 ¼
6.55m
(3) 21-6
FOUL
6.79m
(2) 22-3 ½
 
 
 3 Brittney Reese   USA 6.65m 21-10     FOUL
6.65m
(2) 21-10
6.60m
(2) 21-8
FOUL
 
 
 4 Funmi Jimoh   USA 6.58m 21-7 ¼     6.45m
(3) 21-2
FOUL
6.58m
(3) 21-7 ¼
6.39m
(4) 20-11 ¾
 
 
 5 Jamesha Youngblood   USA 6.54m 21-5 ½     FOUL
6.54m
(4) 21-5 ½
FOUL
6.34m
(5) 20-9 ¾
 
 
 6 Hyleas Fountain   USA 6.20m 20-4 ¼     6.15m
(4) 20-2 ¼
FOUL
PASS
6.20m
(6) 20-4 ¼
 
 
 P Tiana Madison   USA         PASS
PASS
PASS
PASS
 
 


American Record For Jillian Camarena-Williams

1 Jillian Camarena-Williams   USA 19.89m 65-3 ¼     FOUL
19.67m
(1) 64-6 ½
19.89m
(1) 65-3 ¼
19.15m
(1) 62-10
 
 
 2 Michelle Carter   USA 19.09m 62-7 ¾     18.24m
(1) 59-10 ¼
19.09m
(2) 62-7 ¾
18.86m
(2) 61-10 ½
19.04m
(2) 62-5 ¾
 
 
 3 Cleopatra Borel   TRI 18.35m 60-2 ½     18.17m
(3) 59-7 ½
18.35m
(3) 60-2 ½
FOUL
18.09m
(3) 59-4 ¼
 
 
 4 Tia Brooks   Oklahoma 18.19m 59-8 ¼     18.19m
(2) 59-8 ¼
FOUL
18.14m
(4) 59-6 ¼
18.13m
(4) 59-5 ¾
 
 
 5 Sarah Walker   USA 18.02m 59-1 ½     FOUL
18.02m
(5) 59-1 ½
17.99m
(5) 59-0 ¼
FOUL
 
 
 F Alyssa Hasslen   USA         FOUL
FOUL
FOUL
FOUL
 
 

Men's Shot:

1 Ryan Whiting   USA 21.43m 70-3 ¾     FOUL
21.32m
(1) 69-11 ½
21.43m
(1) 70-3 ¾
FOUL
 
 
 2 Justin Rodhe   CAN 20.95m 68-9 ¾     20.02m
(2) 65-8 ¼
FOUL
20.95m
(2) 68-9
FOUL
 
 
 3 Dylan Armstrong   CAN 20.63m 67-8 ¼     FOUL
FOUL
FOUL
20.63m
(3) 67-8 ¼
 
 
 4 Corey Martin   USA 20.17m 66-2 ¼     20.17m
(1) 66-2 ¼
FOUL
FOUL
FOUL
 
 
 5 Amin Nikfar   IRI 19.02m 62-5     FOUL
FOUL
FOUL
19.02m
(5) 62-5

*Photo Gallery

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