Posted: February 1, 2005

Athletics: USATF Visa Championship and Millrose Teleconference Excerpts

Monday, January 31, 2005

USA Track & Field on Monday hosted a teleconference in promotion of the 2005 Visa Championship Series and the 98th Millrose Games at Madison S

Quare Garden in New York City .

America's heralded middle-distance talent, Alan Webb, addressed the media following the announcement that he will compete in the famed Wanamaker Mile on Friday, February 4 at the 98th running of the Millrose Games in New York .

Webb, the 2004 Olympic Trials champion and national high school record holder, will run the Wanamaker Mile against a field that includes 2004's #1 world-ranked Bernard Lagat of Kenya. Lagat is the 2004 Olympic silver medalist at 1,500 meters and owns a bronze in the event from the 2000 Games as well. The 2005 field also includes 2004 Olympic Trials third-place finisherRob Myers, who owns a personal best of 3:53.78; Laban Rotich of Kenya, who upset Lagat last Saturday at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games; and Wanamaker runner-up James Thie of Great Britain.

Webb first became an international sensation as a high school senior in 2001 when he became the first U.S. schoolboy ever to run under 4 minutes indoors (3:59.86). He later broke Jim Ryun's national high school record with his time of 3:53.43 at the 2001 Prefontaine Classic.

Somewhat quiet years from Webb in 2002 and 2003 were followed up by an emphatic 2004 from the prodigy, who posted personal-best times of 3:50.73 in the mile and 3:32.73 in the 1,500m in 2004. He emphatically won the Olympic Trials to re-establish himself as the pre-eminent U.S. miler.

Below are excerpts from the teleconference. An audio replay is also available.

Alan Webb

Q: How do you feel about running in your first Millrose Games?

A; It's always been on the short list of meets that I've always wanted to run, but for one reason or another it just hasn't quite fit. This year I had a great weekend this past weekend and I feel really excited about running the meet and it just fit right in. This will be my first time and I certainly know the history behind the meet. It's very exciting.

Q: We're you waiting until the results of this past weekend to decide on competing at Millrose?

A; I was waiting more on seeing where my own fitness was. I wanted to make sure that I was fit enough to race against the best guys in the world. Anytime you race guys like Bernard (Lagat) or Laban (Rotich) you better be ready to go. I felt that my performances this past weekend merited a move up to the next level, and here we are.

Q: When did you decide to run Millrose?

A; I think we decided last night, I believe that was the official decision. It had been on my draft schedules since summertime. I've been thinking about it, but we didn't make a firm decision until last night.

Q: Do you feel you're further along in training at this point than you've ever been?

A; I feel that I've made progress since the summertime. I've made a lot of progress in my overall fitness since last summer's great races that I had. I think I've definitely moved forward. Indoors is almost a preseason to the summer but it's always nice to run some races to see how you do and this is a great opportunity to supplement some of my training that has gone very well in the fall and in the summertime.

Q: Will you run in the 2005 USA Cross Country Championships?

A; Yes, I'll be running in the 4K.

Q: Has it been pretty smooth going for you since the summer?

A; We took the fall as down time. I went on vacation. I was running and working out. I sort of laid low and didn't run any races in the fall. I just sort of wanted some time to get away and get refocused. We really took our time coming back and slowly but surely we got going and by the time fall was winding down we cranked up our training, especially the last two months have been very productive and that's what powered me last weekend and what will continue to power me through this mini season of indoors/cross country.

Q: Why did you run at BU last weekend instead of Boston Indoors?

A; I wanted to have a tune-up race. Everybody else that ran in the BU race got to have their tune-up race and I just happened to choose to be a couple weeks later than everybody else. I used that race to see where my fitness was, and I think I'm pretty fit now based on those performances and now we'll move to some big time competition. I wanted to see where I was and go to a lower key meet, and it worked out great.

Source:Tom Surber
Media Information Manager
USATF.org.

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