Millrose Games Recap: Weekly Newsletter #27

This past weekend at the world-famous The Armory in New York, another world-class meet was held, The Millrose Games. Welcome back to Kicking For Home, and let me tell you about how the meet went. 

In the first race on the pro marquee on Sunday, an unexpected world record was run. Even though no one expected it, it was still great. In the women's 60m hurdles, Devynne Charlton from the Bahamas ran the world record in 7.67. Charlton ran a very dominant race, leading it up to the end. She is also a five-time national champion, placed second at the 2022 indoor world championships in the 60m hurdles, and she has also held two world records in her career. 

The next big race was the women's 2 mile, where many national and personal records were broken, and the world record of 9:00.48 by Genzebe Dibaba was very close to being broken. The winner of this race was last year's Wanamaker Mile winner and reigning Olympic silver medalist, Laura Muir. Muir finished this race in 9:04.84, however, she wasn't the first one to finish. The nineteen-year-old, Medina Eisa crossed the finish line first but she was disqualified for cutting in too early, before the cut in line. These rules can be kind of confusing and for a more in-depth explanation click the link below.

If Eisa had not cut in too early she would have run a time of 9:04.39. 

In the same event on the men's side multiple national, personal, and a world record was broken. Josh Kerr, the reigning Olympic bronze medalist and world champion in the 1500m won this race in 8:00.67, a new world record by three seconds. Heading into this race, Kerr had announced that he would be going for this world record, and at first, he was the only one in the race until Grant Fisher joined. Fisher is the American record holder in the 3k, 5k, and 10k or the distance triple crown. In this race, Fisher ran another American record and almost played pacer for Kerr in the closing stages of the race, he finished in a time of 8:03.62. Behind these two multiple other national records were broken. 

I will now talk about possibly one of the most famous and sought-after races, the Wanamaker Mile. In both the men's and women's races there were many speedy finishing times and records were broken. I will start with the men's race. 

Last year, this race was the sight of the American record in the indoor mile. Yared Nuguse, the 24-year-old who just turned pro last year has already run some of the fastest times ever in America and the world. In last year's particular race, he ran 3:47.38, he did this with an incredible kick over the closing meters. Along with this he also ran the American record in the outdoor mile, with a time of 3:43.97 at the 2023 PRE Classic. In this year's Wanamaker Mile, Nuguse brought four men under 3:50 and all but one man under four. However, Nuguse was unable to break his American record, as he finished in a time of 3:47.83. 

The final race I will discuss is the women's Wanamaker Mile. This race, like every other race in this article, had a lot of national records, so many that everyone in the top six set a new national record. Elle St. Pierre won this race in 4:16.41, a new American record by four seconds. St. Pierre is a NCAA Champion, a world indoor silver medalist in the 3k, and the National outdoor champion from 2021 in the 1500m. St. Pierre will be one to watch for as we approach the rest of this season, the Olympic trials, and the Olympics in Paris. 

That concludes the 2024 Millrose Games recap, but before I finish I would like to name this newsletter in memory of Kelvin Kiptum. Kiptum unfortunately died on February 11th in a car accident with his coach. If you didn't know, Kiptum is the world record holder in the marathon and he is the only ratified human to run the marathon in under 2:01, with a time of 2:00:35, which he ran at the Chicago Marathon last year. Kiptum's death came as a surprise to us all and it is a terrible loss to the running community. Kelvin Kiptum was a great runner and he had a great career ahead of him, and he will forever be missed.