Sport
Jamaicans score sprint double at US Open athletics meet
Earlier, 22-year-old Silas Kiplagat showed he had learned well from 37-year-old Bernard Lagat. The Kenyan won the mile, beating the man who had dominated at that distance at Madison Square Garden.
Kiplagat, the silver medalist in the 1,500 in last year’s world championships, overtook the former Kenyan and now naturalized American Lagat with just under a lap to go and won in 4:00.65. Lagat was 0.27 seconds back.
Lagat won the Wanamaker Mile in the Millrose Games at the Garden a record eight times before finishing second last year. The 2007 world champion in the 1,500, Lagat now focuses on the 5,000.
“I feel like I was strong the entire way. The thing I take from this is I’m really ready now” to train to run a fast 5,000, Lagat said.
Kiplagat and other young Kenyan runners were in elementary school when Lagat won his first Olympic medal in 2000 and still look up to him. So Kiplagat was grateful for tactical advice Lagat gave him before the world meet in South Korea.
American Lolo Jones won her first race since spine surgery by taking out the 50-meter hurdle.
Jones beat a deep field, finishing in 6.78 seconds to hold off Britain’s Tiffany Porter.
“I was such a mental mess the night before,” Jones said. “Just thinking, ‘Am I healed from surgery? Am I fit? Am I in shape?’ Just to have this one under my belt and with such a tough field — it’s just a sigh of relief that all that hard work paid off.”
