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Rob Myers won the men's 1,500m Sunday evening at the AT&T USA Indoor Track & Field Championships in 3:40.89, just .09s slower than his own meet record for the event, set in 2004. Myers has posted fast times in competition in recent years, but this race marked his return to the podium's top step in the absence of such event-dominating names as Bernard Lagat and Alan Webb.
Myers entered this year's national championship as the favorite, unlike 2004, when he was an unknown Ohio State senior and the first question asked of him by the media was, "Who are you?" He ran the race with the sort of tactical command that might be expected of Lagat himself, sitting in second and letting others make the pace until he felt comfortable taking charge. Once Myers took the lead, he never relinquished it, pulling well clear of his last challengers as they entered the final homestretch.
The 800m finals were also contested on Sunday, with Khadevis Robinson winning the men's final by .01 seconds over Nick Symmonds, and Nicole Teter making a return to the victory stand by outlasting Nicole Cook in the women's final.
Myers, who can expect an uphill battle to earn an Olympic team spot this summer with two legitimate medal contenders in his event, will be taking his chance to represent the USA at the IAAF World Indoor Championships next month in Valencia, Spain. "I haven't sacrificed any training for outdoors" by running a full indoor season, said Myers, who is still coached by Ohio State coach Robert Gary and trains with steeplechasers Brian Olinger and Daniel Huling.
The second team spot will go to Stanford redshirt Russell Brown, a native of New Hampshire who enjoyed a hometown reception at the Reggie Lewis Center on Sunday evening. Brown, who qualified for this meet with a 3:58 mile on the oversized track at the University of Washington earlier this month, has a 3:37.56 outdoor PR and was third in the 2007 NCAA Outdoor final. In 2004, Brown ran the World Junior Championships 1,500m, where he placed fifth in his heat and did not advance to the final.
Posted by Parker Morse at 10:18 a.m. | Tags: Race Reports, 2008 USA Indoor T&F Champs