AMERICAN STARS ADDED TO REEBOK BOSTON INDOOR GAMES
By David Monti
(c) 2009 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved - used with permission

Three USA Olympians were added to the fields of the Reebok Boston Indoor Games, scheduled for Saturday, February 7, including reigning Olympic 10,000m bronze medalist, Shalane Flanagan, who grew up in the Boston area.

Flanagan, 27, will run her first-ever 5000m indoors, according to meet director Mark Wetmore, an event which was not on the original event program.  It will be her first race of the 2009 season.

"We've added a 5000m," Wetmore wrote in an e-mail message.  "And that's what she'll run."

With a 14:44.80 5000m personal best, Flanagan is already the American record holder for the distance outdoors.  At the 2007 edition of the Reebok Boston Indoor Games, she set the American indoor record for 3000m: 8:33.25.  The USA indoor record for 5000m is 15:07.33, set by Marlan Runyan at the Armory track in New York City on Feb. 18, 2001.

Flanagan's  presence in the indoor meeting in Boston means she will not defend her title at the USA Cross Country Championships which take place in a different state on the same day.

Wetmore also announced that the American record holder for the mile, Alan Webb, would compete against Olympic bronze medalist Nick Willis in the mile.  Webb had a disappointing year in 2008, finishing fifth in the U.S. Olympic Trials at 1500m and not making the Olympic team.  Nonetheless, Webb remains a potent threat on the track with personal bests of 3:46.91 for the mile and 3:30.54 for 1500m, both world leading times in 2007.

Galen Rupp of the University of Oregon, who competed in the Beijing Olymics at 10,000m, will also take part.  Fresh off of his NCAA cross country title last November, Rupp will run the two-mile.

The 14th-annual Reebok Boston Indoor Games, the second stop in USA Track & Field’s Visa Championship Series, begins at 5:00 p.m. on Feb. 7 at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center at Roxbury Community College, 1350 Tremont St. Information is now available on-line at www.BostonIndoorGames.com, and tickets are available on-line or by calling 1-877-TIX-TRAC.

PHOTO: Shalane Flanagan winning the 2008 USA Cross Country Championships (photo by Jane Monti)

ENDS