Posted: June 4, 2005

Athletics: 8:11.48 U.S. Two-Mile Record For Webb

From David Monti

© 2005 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

By Bob Ramsak

He may not have won the race, but Alan Webb did live up to the pre-meet hype with his 8:11.48 national record in the two-mile run on Saturday afternoon at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon.

Finishing second to Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge's 8:07.68, the 22-year-old Webb eclipsed the previous record of 8:11.59 set by Bob Kennedy in Hechtel, Belgium, on July 19, 1997. His en route 3000 meter time, 7:39.28, makes Webb the ninth fastest American ever at that distance.

Kipchoge, the Olympic 5000m bronze medallist and reigning world champion at the distance, produced the eighth fastest clocking at the rarely-run distance.

Elsewhere at "The Pre," traditionally the finest international track meet held in the United States each year, Canadian Gary Reed lowered his own national record in the 800 meters to upset Olympic champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy by 9/100s of a second in 1:44.82; Kenyan Alex Kipchirchir won the Bowerman mile in 3:50.91, Maria Mutola produced the second-fastest performance of the season with her narrow 1:59.95* win over Jamaican Kenia Sinclair (2:00.15); and former University of Arkansas standout Christin Wurth topped an international field in the 1500 with a personal best 4:09.45.

Look for complete results in Monday's RRW.

* Hasna Benhassi, the Olympic silver medallist from Morocco, ran a world-leading 1:59.59 at the Meeting de Atletismo in Seville, Spain a few hours earlier.