NCAA XC Champs Justyn Knight And Ednah Kurgat As Well As 2017 NCAA 800 Champ Emmanuel Korir Announced For Millrose Games
NEW YORK, November 30, 2017 –After thrilling their compatriots at recent championships, several top international track and field stars will compete in the 111th NYRR Millrose Games at The Armory’s New Balance Track and Field Center on February 3, 2018.
In the global city of New York that is home to the renowned NYRR Millrose Games, the athletes’ countries are well-represented in the local population.
CJ Ujah ran the lead-off leg in the British 4x100m team that seized victory in front of an ecstatic home crowd at the London 2017 World Championships. “GOLD!! unbelievable feeling being on the podium, singing the national anthem in front of a packed crowd,” he tweeted (@Chijindu_Ujah). He capped his year with the IAAF Diamond League title, running 9.97 seconds for the 100m. He will run the NYRR Millrose Games 60m.
Lalonde Gordon anchored Trinidad & Tobago’s 4x400m team to World Championships gold in August 2017, and was a 2012 Olympic bronze medalist, individually over 400m and as part of the 4×400 relay team. Gordon lives and trains in New York City and holds the 300m record at The Armory, where he will run the 400m at the NYRR Millrose Games.
Xie Zhenye had a breakthrough 2017 season when he became the Chinese double national champion, lowering his own national 200m record after defeating the Asian champion Su Bingtian in a 10.04 personal best over 100m. A two-time Olympian, Xie will run the 60m in the NYRR Millrose Games. He was fourth with a 6.53 in the 60m at the 2016 World Indoor Championships in Portland, Ore.
Omar McLeod of Jamaica was the 2016 Olympic and 2017 World Championships gold medalist in the 110-meter hurdles and will be returning to the NYRR Millrose Games. The former three-time NCAA individual champion is the World Indoor 60m hurdles gold medalist.
Shaunae Miller-Uibo won 400m gold at Rio 2016 in dramatic fashion, diving across the finish line ahead of Allyson Felix. A two-time Olympian and native of the Bahamas, Miller-Uibo became her nation’s first world-record holder when she broke Felix’s straight 200-meter record in 2017. She was also a bronze medalist at the 2017 World Championships. At the NYRR Millrose Games, Miller-Uibo will run the 300m in which she holds the record at The Armory.
Justyn Knight became Canada’s second NCAA men’s cross country champion, and the first in over a decade, when he lifted the title for Syracuse University on November 18. An eight-time All-American at Syracuse, he was also a finalist in the 2017 London World Championships 5000m.
Emmanuel Korir made Kenya’s 2017 World Championships 800m team while a student at the University of Texas El Paso, after running 1:14.97 to set a world indoor 600m record in Albuquerque on January 20, 2017. He was also the 2017 NCAA indoor and outdoor 800m champion.
The international athletes confirmed to compete at the NYRR Millrose Games so far also include:
Ednah Kurgat of Kenya, who just won the NCAA Cross Country Championship individual women’s title with a new championship record and led her University of New Mexico team to victory.
Wesley Vasquez, who competed in the 800m at the last two Olympic Games representing Puerto Rico, and was also eighth at the 2014 Continental Cup.
Erika Kinsey, who represented Sweden in the high jump at the 2016 Olympics, the 2015 and 2017 World Championships, and the 2016 World Indoor Championships. She is also a former NCAA Division II indoor and outdoor high jump champion.
Go to NYRRMillroseGames.org to learn more about the NYRR Millrose Games and to purchase tickets to the Saturday, February 3, 2018 meet scheduled to take place from 11:45am to 6 pm.
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