USA Indoor Season Expands With New Madison Square Garden Meet
By David Monti
November 17, 2011
(c) 2011 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved
NEW YORK (17-Nov) -- The 2012 United States indoor track season expanded
with the announcement of a new meeting to be held here on January 28.
USA Track and Field (USATF) announced today that the first edition of
the U.S. Open would be held in Madison Square Garden, and that
double-Olympic medalist Bernard Lagat had committed to the meet.
The meet, which USATF said would include professional and high school
events, keeps elite track and field in the Garden after the
controversial decision by the Armory Foundation earlier this year to
move the Millrose Games out of that venue and into the New Balance Track
& Field Center at the Armory about seven miles north of the Garden
in Washington Heights. The Millrose Games, which will be held on
February 11 for the 105th time, is not part of USATF's three-meet Visa
Championship Series, while the U.S. Open, New Balance Indoor Grand Prix
in Boston (Feb. 4), and USA Indoor Championships in Albuquerque (Feb.
25-26) are.
Lagat, 36, won the Wanamaker Mile when the Millrose Games were at
Madison Square Garden a record eight times. The USATF press release
sent today carefully avoids any mention of either the Wanamaker Mile or
the Millrose Games, but credits Lagat as having "won eight 1-mile races
in the Garden."
"Madison Square Garden feels like home to me, and I am so happy to be coming back in 2012," Lagat said through a statement.
In holding the U.S. Open, USATF will face the same problems they did
when they funded the Millrose Games at the Garden: a quirky 145.5m
banked track which makes running fast times all but impossible, trying
to fill over 16,000 seats, and finding sponsorship to offset some of the
estimated "$1 million a year" the New York Times said it cost to stage
the meet at the Garden.
Nonetheless, USATF interim CEO Mike McNees sounded upbeat about the new meet.
"This will be a tightly scheduled meet featuring the 'best of the best'
from past Garden meets while providing a fitting kick-off to the 2012
Olympic year," he said through the release. "We are excited about our
partnership with The Garden and are especially glad that everyone from
kids to families to VIPs will be able to access the meet."
Ray Flynn, who directs the Millrose Games, said he was glad to see the
USA indoor season grow, although it is still just a fraction of the size
it was when Flynn competed as a miler in the 1980's. At that time,
Flynn said, athletes would compete multiple times in the same week.
"We welcome having another meet in New York," Flynn said in a brief
telephone interview. "It is exciting to expand the indoor season. It
could only help prepare the athletes for better performances at the
Millrose Games."
USATF said that the U.S. Open would be televised from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. on ESPN.
Note: David Monti does professional athlete consulting for the NYRR which is sponsoring both miles at the Millrose Games.
|
|
|