Posted: January 29, 2005

Athletics: Boston's Reggie Lewis Center - A Decade Of Great Indoor Track & Field

INDIANAPOLIS -In addition to being the current home of the USA Indoor Track & Field Championships and the annual Reebok Indoor Games, part of USA Track & Field's Visa Championship Series, the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center at Roxbury College in Boston has played host to countless great events and tremendous performances in just one decade of service.

One of the finest facilities of its kind found anywhere in the world, the 4,000-spectator capacity Reggie Lewis Center has been the site of 16 American or world records since it was built in 1995. It has hosted an impressive list of competitions, including the NCAA Division II Men's and Women's Championships, the National Scholastic Championships, USA Masters Indoor Championships, and hundreds of other high school and college track and field meets on its world-class, Mondo Super X banked 200m track. Each year from mid-December to the end of March, the Center hosts an average of 80 track meets.

The 10th edition of the Reebok Boston Indoor Games will take place on January 29 featuring many of the nation's finest track and field stars. Since the inaugural event in 1996, the meet has played host to three world records, nine American records and six other national records.

Memorable moments in the event's history include the men's 4x800-meter relay team of Joey Woody, Karl Paranya, Rich Kenah and David Krummenacker setting the meet's first world record in 2002 by winning in 7 minutes, 13.94 seconds. Their performance knocked almost four seconds off the previous world mark held by the Soviet Union since 1971.

To the frenzied cheers of a sellout crowd in 2003, Olympic gold medalist Stacy Dragila improved her American record in the pole vault to 4.70 meters/15 feet, 5 inches. One of the most unforgettable moments in the meet's history came last year when all-time great Haile Gebrselassie enthralled a packed Reggie Lewis Center. From the moment he flashed his legendary smile during warm-ups to his 7:35.24 victory – the fastest indoor 3,000m ever run on U.S. soil – the Ethiopian superstar thrilled an ecstatic crowd.

The 2005 Reebok Boston Indoor Games promises to be one of the best ever featuring men's shot putters Christian Cantwell, Adam Nelson, John Godina and Reese Hoffa, who among them lay claim to the 10 longest throws in the world for 2004.

The USA Indoor Championships returns for the third time to the Reggie Lewis Center on February 25-27 in what should be another tremendous competition. This year's Championships have a tough act to follow after Gail Devers and Jen Toomey made history with double victories in 2004.

For the first time in the history of the event, an American woman won the 60 meters and 60m hurdles at the same Championships last year. Devers won the 60m hurdles in 7.81 seconds, and less than an hour later she won the 60m dash in 7.12 seconds, to provide the finale to an exciting day of competition. P>With her successful double, the 37-year-old Devers - who set a Reggie Lewis Center record with a time of 7.11 in the semifinals of the 60m dash - matched a feat achieved previously only by Chi Cheng of Taipei. At the 1970 USA Indoor Championships, Cheng swept the women's sprint and hurdle races at a time when foreign athletes were allowed to compete at the meet.

Jen Toomey became the first woman in history to capture the 800m/1,500m double at the 2004 Championships. Toomey began her quest by dominating a talented field to win the 800m in 2:00.02 for her first national title. The following day she grabbed the lead from three-time Olympian Suzy Favor Hamilton just prior to the bell lap before winning the 1,500 meters in 4:09.82.

The 2003 USA Indoor Championships at the Reggie Lewis Center were highlighted by 2000 Olympic gold medalist Stacy Dragila taking back the women's world record in the pole vault. Earlier in 2004, Russian star Svetlana Feofanova raised the world record to 4.77 meters/15 feet, 7.75 inches, while Dragila twice improved her own American record. Dragila's clearance of 4.78m/15-8.25 in front of an adoring crowd in Boston gave her the record back by one centimeter.

The Championships will return to the Reggie Lewis Center in 2006 and 2007, with Team USA's roster for the World Indoor Championships being selected at the 2006 meet.