Josh Kerr 2-Mile WR (8:00.67) Highlights Record-Filled 2024 Millrose Games
Devynne Charlton (7.67) also broke the WR in the 60 hurdles as Grant Fisher, Elle St. Pierre, and Alicia Monson all ran American records
By LetsRun.com
NEW YORK – The 2024 Millrose Games delivered a world record in the very first event of the professional window when Devynne Charlton of the Bahamas ran 7.67 in the women’s 60-meter hurdles. Charlton’s performance set the tone for a fast afternoon of racing in Upper Manhattan, highlighted by Josh Kerr’s 8:00.67 world record in the 2-mile and American records for Elle St. Pierre in the women’s mile (4:16.41 to win her third Wanamaker Mile), Grant Fisher in the men’s 2-mile (8:03.62), and Alicia Monson in the women’s 2-mile (9:09.72).
Not all of those performances were good enough for the win, however, as Fisher fell to Kerr in the 2-mile and Monson had to settle for third with Laura Muir taking the 2-mile in 9:04.84 after initial winner Medina Eisa of Ethiopia was disqualified for cutting in early at the start of the race. Yared Nuguse was not among the record breakers as he was in 2023 as his mile world record attempt came short, but he still became the first man since Matthew Centrowitz in 2016 to repeat as Wanamaker Mile champion, securing a commanding win in 3:47.83.
Below, here are our 10 biggest takeaways from a fantastic 116th edition of Millrose. *Full 2024 Millrose Games Results
1. Josh Kerr called his shot more than two months ago and delivered big-time
Kerr is not afraid to talk big, and one recent example came when he was announced as the headliner of the men’s 2-mile at Millrose on November 29. As part of that announcement, Kerr said he would try to break British countryman Mo Farah’s indoor world record of 8:03.40.
Usually runners do not announce world record attempts 10 weeks in advance because they do not know exactly how fit they will be until closer to race day. And Kerr admitted today that part of the reason he made that pronouncement was to drum up interest in the event – which certainly worked as it drew a quality field and was one of the most-anticipated races of the day.
Kerr was fortunate to have Grant Fisher pushing the pace once the pacer dropped out, knowing that he was unlikely to outkick the reigning 1500-meter world champion. It took almost everything Kerr had just to hang on the pace, but he still had enough at the end to summon a kick (56.79 from 2800 to 3200, 27.79 from 3000 to 3200) to bury Fisher and seal the world record.
“That was so hard,” Kerr said. “[I was] hurting for the entire second mile. Running two 4:00 miles back-to-back is a lot harder than people think. Or I thought, anyway.”
It wasn’t quite back-to-back 4:00s. Kerr ran a significant negative split, going through the mile in 4:03.63 and coming home in 3:57.04 for the second mile.
Any way you slice it, this was an impressive run and shows that Kerr is in even better shape than last year when he won the 3,000 at Millrose in 7:33. Per John Kellogg’s 1.0804 conversion, his 8:00.67 today converts to 7:24.90 for 3,000. Watch out, Jakob Ingebrigtsen.
Only Lamecha Girma (7:23.81) and Mo Katir (7:24.68) have run faster than that for 3000 indoors (four people have run faster outdoors, including Ingebrigtsen twice).
“That’s the level of athlete that I’ve become,” Kerr said. “I had to roll through the punches through my career and be good and not world-class, and then be world-class and not world champion. Now I’m world champion and having fun with it and creating big goals to get myself out the door and prove that I’m not all talk.”
Kerr still has yet to commit to next month’s World Indoor Championships in his native Scotland but said a decision is coming next week.
Race video for US IPs (Need a VPN? Use our VPN)
2. Grant Fisher gets smoked but his first race since leaving Bowerman was very, very solid
As for Fisher, it’s never great for someone who aspires to be a world medallist to get beat by almost three full seconds, but his 8:03.62 run is not only a 2-mile AR but also better than Yared Nuguse’s 7:28.24 3000 AR (Fisher’s time equates to 7:27.63). It’s also way faster than what Fisher ran at this time last year (7:35.82 in Lievin) and is better than Matt Tegenkamp’s outdoor 2-mile AR of 8:07.07 (Galen Rupp had the indoor record at 8:07.41).
This was Fisher’s first race since leaving the Bowerman Track Club and aside from not getting the win, it went very well. Fisher served as Kerr’s rabbit for the difficult part of the race, but Fisher said he didn’t mind that as his plan was to grind 60-second laps and see if he could drop Kerr. It didn’t happen, but Fisher was very pleased with his start to 2024.
“I was giving it. And I just didn’t have the legs. The guy’s world champion for a reason, so he’s got good leg speed and I thought I could run it off him a little better.
“But, clearly he’s strong right now, so I thought I ran well. Sometimes you run well and someone sets a world record in front of you, so you can’t always get everything, but a very good start [to the season].”
Since Fisher has a new coach and is doing new workouts, he couldn’t compare his fitness to years past. His big focus for this training block is making sure he hits the 27:00 10,000m Olympic standard at The TEN next month in California. Fisher said the goal at The TEN will just be to hit the standard as there is too much risk in trying to run really, really fast.
“It’s been fun to try to really take a shot at something, but if something goes wrong then there’s not a lot of opportunities to get the 10k standard,” said Fisher, saying ultimately World Athletics would get rid of the standards and reward racing but that’s not the case now.
3. Cole Hocker had mixed feelings about his 8:05, 3rd-place run
Hocker found himself in no-man’s-land in this one after Fisher and Kerr broke away, and while Hocker was able to drop the chase pack, he could not close much ground on Fisher and Kerr until a big kick over the final 400. Hocker credited Geordie Beamish for pushing him late in the race. Beamish is known for his kick and typically mows down anyone close to him at the end. Not today. Beamish did pass Hocker before the bell, but Hocker fought back and split 27.85 from 3000 to 3200 to hold off Beamish by .03 in the reverse of the 3,000m finish at 2022 Millrose.
Hocker did not like getting beaten by Kerr and Fisher, but there should be no shame in losing to the world 1500 champ and American record holder for 3k/5k/10k (and now 2 miles). Hocker’s time of 8:05.70 was much faster than Rupp’s previous AR of 8:07.41. 8:05.70 also equates to 7:29.56 for 3,000, which is much better than Hocker’s 7:39.93 PB. This was a strong run and a strong close against Beamish, but not enough in a race that required a WR to win.
“That’s just where we’re at in the sport, especially in America,” Hocker said. “The goal coming in was to win that race and I thought it was going to take low-8:00s like it did. 3rd place here at Millrose in a world record race, I can’t be too upset with that.”
4. Yared Nuguse has raised the bar…for himself
Only two men have run under 3:48 in the mile indoors. Yomif Kejelcha is still the world record holder, but Yared Nuguse is now the only man to have done it twice indoors after he ran 3:47.83 to win the Wanamaker Mile and put away challenges by Hobbs Kessler (2nd in 3:48.86) and and George Mills (3rd in 3:48.93) to repeat as Wanamaker Mile champ. Adam Fogg in 4th also dipped under 3:50.
But after Nuguse ran an American record 3:47.38 last year, the only way this race was going to be a super success was if he bettered his AR or better yet broke Kejelcha’s world record (3:47.01) and became the first man under 3:47 indoors.
After rabbit Derek Holdswoth dropped out at 800m, the pacing duties were left to Nuguse and the paced lagged as Nuguse covered the next 400 in 59.02. Getting the world record was now a huge ask and proved too much for Nuguse. Nuguse would run 55.79 from 1200 to 1600 and a very solid 26.61 the final 200m to pull away from Kessler, but it wasn’t enough to get him a PB.
And that shows how far Nuguse has come in the last year, that people were expecting him to break the world record today.
“Just to have that in my second year to be, ‘yeah let’s go for the world record’ and to be just a little disappointed with not getting it, it’s just like kind of crazy,” Nuguse said after the race.
Overall he was pleased with his run saying, “I knew it was going to be hard because I knew it was going to be most likely me just hammering it the whole way. And that’s what it was, but I’m still really happy with how I ran that race. And I still feel like, you know, I’m not necessarily at my peak anyway. So, I’m not going to have another chance at that record for a while, but it was still good.”
Now Nuguse turns his attention to the USA Indoor champs where time means nothing. He just needs to finish first or second to make the team.
The biggest surprise behind Nuguse was Adam Fogg of the Under Armour Mission Run Baltimore Group team who came in with a modest 3:35.70 pb and had to qualify for Millrose by winning the Dr. Sander Invite in 3:53.55. He’s now a 3:49 miler. When the pace for the leaders lagged, Fogg was the one from the second group who attempted to bridge the gap and was rewarded big-time for his bravery.
Race video for US IPs (Need a VPN? Use our VPN)
5. Elle St. Pierre breaks American record in mile
Last week in her first indoor race since giving birth to son Ivan in March, Elle St. Pierre ran 8:25.25 to nearly break the American record at 3000m as she was nipped before the line by Australia’s Jessica Hull.
Today, she turned the tables on Hull to not only get the win but also the American record 4:16.41 to break her own American record (4:16.85) from four years ago at Millrose. St. Pierre took the lead before the bell and it was no contest the final lap. Hull finished over two seconds back in an Aussie record of 4:19.03. There were national records galore in this one as Susan Ejore even got the Kenyan one in 4:20.61 (showing Faith Kipyegon doesn’t run indoors), plus Swedish and Spanish records.
Clearly, the training and racing has gone great for St. Pierre post-baby, but that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been some difficulties. Last week she took Ivan with her to Boston and they soon decided having a baby in a hotel room the night before a race isn’t the best idea. So Ivan stayed home this weekend with his cousins.
Elle St. Pierre leaves NYC with the American record, and in a great place on and off the track. When asked about the biggest surprise of parenthood she said, “I think it’s just, like the amount of love [you have], like people just talk about it. Until you feel it, you can’t really understand it, and it’s really fulfilling.”
Race video for US IPs (Need a VPN? Use our VPN)
6. Hobbs Kessler is trying a unique approach to training: he doubles almost every day but tries not to run more than seven miles at once
Kessler ran the Wanamaker Mile exactly how he wanted until the last lap, getting into position behind Nuguse and letting him drag along to a fast time. At that point, however, Kessler allowed George Mills to pass him on the outside, which allowed Nuguse to open a gap up front that Kessler never closed. Other than that, however, Kessler was pleased with his run, and a 3:48.66 pb (#2 all-time by an American indoors behind Nuguse) and a runner-up finish seven days after taking down world champ Jake Wightman in Boston is a very strong start to his 2024 campaign.
Kessler has overhauled his training in 2024 and said he has not done a long run all year. He doubles almost every day but said that in a normal week of training, he never runs more than seven miles continuously.
“It’s a little bit bro science, but it’s been working,” Kessler said. “I’m not sure why. I go out, run 8-10 miles and kind of bonk after a certain point. It would suck and I’d just have to grind it out. So I just was like, I’m going to split up my runs and get more volume without ever having to get that bonk feeling.”
Kessler said he has done a few runs longer than seven miles if he cannot double for whatever reason that day. Otherwise, Kessler says he doubles basically every day apart from his one scheduled off day per week. He is running more mileage (75-90 per week) than ever before – just not all at once.
“All the mileage goes down easy and with the energy I’ve saved from that, I’ve been able to reallocate in either more mileage or more quality work,” Kessler said.
So far, it is hard to argue with the results. We’ll have to wait until the summer to see how such an approach holds up over the course of a season.
7. The men’s 1500 at USA Indoors is going to be incredible
Cancel your plans for 5:36 p.m. ET on Saturday, because the men’s 1500 final at the 2024 USATF Indoor Championships in Albuquerque is going to be sensational. The last three US outdoor champions – Cole Hocker, Cooper Teare, and Yared Nuguse – are all running, as is Hobbs Kessler. Only two men qualify for World Indoors in Glasgow. It should be a fantastic race and a nice preview of this year’s Olympic Trials 1500 (minus the collegiate stars).
8. Devynne Charlton knew a world record was coming in the 60m hurdles
Charlton, a 28-year-old Purdue alum from the Bahamas who is based in Lexington, Ky., under coach Lonnie Greene, was 4th at last year’s World Championship 100m hurdle final in Budapest. Denied a medal in that race by .06, she was already thinking about 2024 before she even left the stadium.
“One of the first things I said to my coach when I went to the warmup area was, ‘I have to break the world record indoors,’” Charlton said.
Charlton entered 2024 with a 7.81 pb from 2022 and opened up this season with a 7.88 win in Louisville on January 13. A 7.75 pb in Lubbock on January 20 told Charlton she was ready for something special.
“I went to my coach and I was just like, ‘That was a sloppy race,'” Charlton said. “I knew that once we went back, started working on it, this type of race would show up…I knew the type of numbers I’ve been putting up in practice, I had this race in me.”
Charlton was only 3rd in Boston last week in 7.76 but today she ran 7.67 to show her confidence was well-placed. And she got to do it in front of her parents, who try to make it to all of her big meets. After her 7.75, her parents had called Greene with tears of joy but Charlton told them to save them.
“I’m just like, don’t cry yet,” Charlton said. “That’s nothing to cry over.”
After today, Charlton said, they have her permission to cry.
The previous WR of 7.68 belonged to Susanna Kallur of Sweden and was set all the way back in 2008. It had survived a number of challenges in recent years, with Sharika Nelvis, Keni Harrison, Ackera Nugent, and Tia Jones all running 7.72 or faster since 2018, but Charlton was the one to finally get it.
Charlton said that Tobi Amusan’s 12.12 WR in the 100H raised the bar for all female hurdlers and helped push her to the record today.
“I think it just kind of lit a fire under everybody’s ass,” Charlton said. “We’re not doing enough, we have to work harder.”
9. Alicia Monson gave it her best shot in the 2-mile and feels ready to break 30:00 next month at The TEN
Monson has been in a big block of strength training with her main focus on The TEN on March 16, where she will try to break her own American record at 10,000 meters. So she knew her only chance to beat Muir today was to force a fast pace and break her before the finish line. She could not manage that and wound up fading to third, but her consolation was an American record at Millrose for the second straight year as she ran 9:09.70 to narrowly improve Elle St. Pierre’s previous record of 9:10.28.
All things considered, Monson was pleased with her run. She noted that she ran 95 miles last week and she has had some of the best long runs of her life recently trying to keep up with On Athletics Club teammate Hellen Obiri. But all that volume left her a little less sharp for a 3,000 than last year, where she ran an American record of 8:25.05 (John Kellogg’s conversion put her time today as worth 8:28.79). With another month of good training, Monson said, she believes she is ready to break her 10,000 AR of 30:03.82 and become the first US woman under 30:00.
“I was much less ready for a 3k this year than I was last year because I did two fast miles [last year] whereas for this one, I had COVID to start the year and we’ve tried to keep my volume up,” Monson said. “I’m happy with where I’m at.”
10. Maia Ramsden almost breaks the NCAA mile record one day after anchoring Harvard’s DMR in Boston
Ramsden broke out last year by winning the NCAA title, but it was still a surprise to see her run 4:24.83 today and become the second-fastest women’s collegiate miler ever, behind only Katelyn Tuohy’s 4:24.26 from last year. Particularly because Ramsden ran a 4:30.01 mile last week in Boston, then anchored Harvard’s DMR at a meet in Boston yesterday (she split 4:29) before heading in a car with an assistant coach and driving south to New York to race again on Sunday.
“I kind of like racing back-to-back, it brushes out some of the cobwebs, gets me moving,” Ramsden said.
Ramsden did think she was ready to run faster than last week, as she and her coach thought 4:25-27 was a reasonable expectation of her fitness. But the pro competition forced Ramsden to raise her game even more, and she responded with one of the fastest NCAA miles ever.
*Full 2024 Millrose Games Results
Talk about 2024 Millrose on our world famous messageboard/ fan forum:
- MB: Official 2024 Millrose Games Discussion Thread – Will the men’s mile and 2-mile WRs fall?
- MB: Jakob Ingebrigtsen, did you just watch that? Josh Kerr 8:00.67 2-mile WORLD RECORD
- MB: Will Grant Fisher ever win a major race? I don’t think so
- MB: 1 WR already has fallen at Millrose – Devynne Charlton Break 60mh WR at Millrose – How many more will we get?
- MB: Hobbs Kessler 3:48.66… sub-3:30 outdoors???
- MB: INDOOR Times do NOT count
- MB: Fogg-Dogg, most improved miler in the world and its not even close
- MB: Will anyone be able to compete with Josh Kerr at Millrose?
- MB: Cooper Teare Is Done.
- MB: Mills TRIPS final lap of Wannamaker Mile
- MB: Niels laros is Jakobs biggest threat for Paris
- MB: Eisa DQ?
