News Archive

News Archive

US Indoors in Boston: Toomey wins 1,500 m, Culpepper takes title at 3,000

At the first day of running finals at the US Indoor Championships in Boston Jen

Toomey showed that she is the number one at 1,500 m in the US. In a race that

was not very fast at first the field remained together until after 600 m. Then

a group of six got away from the rest. Toomey and McWilliams tried to break

away from the rest multiple times, but the others followed again and again.

Finally in the last lap, Jen Toomey attacked and did break away from her

opponents. Treniere Clement and Jenelle Deatherage tried to follow her, but

weren’t successful. Toomey won in 4:13,25 minutes. Clement got second

place (4:14,20) and Christin Wurth (4:14,74) was third.

At the 1,500 m men’s race a newcomer won the indoor title. The young

Scott McGowan showed that one has to pay attention to him this year. Especially

because these were his first major championships. In 3:44,06 minutes he won in

front of Rob Myers (3:45,18) and the actual favourite Charlie Gruber who came

in after 3:36,11. McGowan and Myers got away from the rest and in the last lap

newcomer McGowan sprinted to a clear victory.

The men’s 3,000 m began with a false start. After the next start

succeeded the field stayed together and reached a 1,000 m time of 2:39. After

the 2,000 m mark (5:18) a group of three, among them Bolota Asmerom and

Jonathon Riley, got away. Asmerom tried to break away from Riley but failed.

The distance between them and the rest of the field increased. Before the last

lap Riley overtook Bolota and increased the pace. Asmerom tried to follow but

failed to do so. Jonathon Riley won in 7:53,73 in front of Bolota Asmerom who

got second place in 7:53,81.Third was Luke Watson in 7:57,23.

The most thrilling race was the women’s 3,000 m. Favourite and two

times Olympian Shayne Culpepper and Amy Rudolph started the race relatively

slow. In the seventh lap Amy Rudolph tried to get away and increased the pace.

Culpepper followed immediately and both increased the pace more and more.

Lauren Fleshman tried to stay close to the leading duo and finally caught up

with them. After the tenth lap Shayne Culpepper tried to get away from Rudolph

and Fleshman. Shayne couldn’t get the leading position, instead Fleshman

took over with two laps to go. Amy Rudolph had problems to follow Fleshman and

Culpepper.

With a lap time of 36 seconds the pace increased once more, and Culpepper

finally got away from Fleshman and Rudolph. She won with a new personal best

time of 8:55,57. Amy Rudolph became second (8:57,42), Lauren Fleshman finished

third in 8:59,93 which also is a personal best. MARISA REICH