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

2005-02-27

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