Deep 5000m Field Will Be a "True" Test at 2011 adidas Grand Prix

By adidas Grand Prix (Sponsored Post)
May 26, 2011

Big names and heavy medalists will abound once again in the men's 5000 meters at the adidas Grand Prix. Bernard Lagat, Imane Merga, Tariku Bekele, James Kwalia, Edwin Soi, Craig Mottram, Leonard Patrick Komon: all own top-shelf hardware, world #1 rankings or, in the case of Komon, a World Record (road).

Ben True knows what he's up against.

Last year, True paced the 5000m at the Prefontaine Classic, where Bekele ran the first sub-13 on U.S. soil. Right behind him were Dejen Gebremeskel and Merga, ranked #1 in the world last year. All three are in the adidas Grand Prix field.

"Those guys will probably be in sub-13 shape," says True, 25. "My goal is not to bury myself in that first mile so I can have a strong last mile and close quickly. The majority of the field  [at Pre] was around 13:10, 13:15, and that's where I should be able to be in this race. The goal is a good fast 5K and ideally the World and Olympic "A" standard."

The "A" standard, 13:20, would be a huge leap from True's personal best of 13:43.98, set on June 11 last year – one year ago to the day from the New York meet. But a lot has happened in True's career since then, almost all of it good.

A 2008 graduate of Dartmouth College, where he wasan All-American and the first in school history to run a sub-4 minute mile, True was living in Eugene and training with the Oregon Track Club at this time last year. It didn't take. "Out West I quickly learned that I'm a very small-town kid, and Eugene was just too big a metropolis," says the native of North Yarmouth, Maine (population: 3,210).

So he returned East and last September became part of the new In the Arena NH team, based in Hanover, N.H. and coached by 2004 Olympian Tim Broe. In November, True finished second in the Manchester Road Race, then in February finished fifth at nationals to earn a spot on the U.S. team for the World Cross Country Championships – where he finished as the top American a week after placing second at the U.S. national 15K championships. Then in mid-April, he broke the finish line tape on Boylston Street in Boston when he won the BAA 5K the day before the Boston Marathon, in front of his family.

"Things have been going pretty well," he says. "They haven't been going perfectly well." True was ready to run a great 10,000 meters at the Stanford Payton Jordan meet on May 1, said Broe, only to be thwarted by a case of the flu that later landed him in the hospital on an IV and temporarily halted his run of good luck. The adidas Grand Prix will mark his return to racing. And what a return.

"It'll be the biggest competition he's had, that's for sure," said Broe, who retired from competition after four surgeries in three years failed to correct a chronic foot problem. His last race was at the 2005 World Championships, at 5000 meters.

Broe has been with In the Arena, a nationwide non-profit organization that puts athletes into the community as role models for children through teaching, coaching, working with Boys and Girls Clubs and the like, since 2006. In September last year, the organization launched a running group in New Hampshire, providing housing and other support in exchange for community service, including a local school reading program and middle-school coaching. Broe was asked to coach the group, currently consisting of four men and one woman.

"It's kind of a dream job for me," says Broe, who ran for adidas. "Even when I was running professionally I always said I'd love to have my own team or my own group. This is one in a zillion."

Appropriately, In the Arena takes its name from a quotation by President Theodore Roosevelt: "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena."

Broe lived the spirit of quote. If he can pass that along to True, the "small-town kid" will have a good day in the Big Apple come June 11.

In its seventh year as one of the premier track-and-field events in the world, the adidas Grand Prix on Randall's Island is the sixth stop on the international Samsung Diamond League circuit. Tickets are available at the event website, www.adidasgrandprix.com, or by calling 1-877-849-8722.

Men's 5000m Start List: American World Champion Bernard Lagat Battles 2011 World XC Champ and 2010 Diamond League Winner Imane Merga

ATHLETE DATE OF BIRTH NATION PB SB BAUHS Scott 05/11/1986 USA 13:28.92 13:30.18 BEKELE Tariku 02/28/1987 ETH 12:52.45 BETT Josphat Kipkoech 06/12/1990 KEN 12:57.43 C'KURUI James Kwalia 06/12/1984 QAT 12:54.58 GEBREMESKEL Dejen 11/24/1989 ETH 12:53.56 KIPKOECH John 12/29/1991 KEN 13:26.03 KOECH Isaiah Kiplangat 12/19/1993 KEN 13:07.70 KOMON Leonard Patrick 01/10/1988 KEN 12:58.24 LAGAT Bernard 12/12/1974 USA 12:54.12 13:08.43 MCNEILL David 10/06/1986 AUS 13:25.63 13:51.95 MERGA Imane 10/15/1988 ETH 12:53.58 MOTTRAM Craig 06/18/1980 AUS 12:55.76 13:25.15 SOI Edwin Cheruiyot 03/03/1986 KEN 12:52.40 13:36.38 TRUE Ben 12/29/1985 USA 13:43.98

World XC Champ and 2010 Diamond League 5000m Winner Imane Merga

Tickets are available at the event website, www.adidasgrandprix.com, or by calling 1-877-849-8722.

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