Grant Fisher breaks the world indoor 3000m record in New York (© Josh Sawyer)
After the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold started in record-breaking style in Boston, rivalries will be renewed and more historic marks could fall when action continues at the Millrose Games in New York on Sunday (1).
Many athletes will be using the meeting – as well as other events on the World Indoor Tour – as a step towards the World Athletics Indoor Championships Kujawy Pomorze 26 on 20-22 March and then an outdoor season that features the World Athletics Ultimate Championship in September.
Among those looking to make their mark will be Josh Kerr, Grant Fisher and Cole Hocker who will clash over two miles.
Great Britain’s 2023 world 1500m champion Kerr set a world short track best when he won the two miles in New York in 8:00.67 in 2024. Fisher was second in a US best of 8:03.62 that day, while his compatriot Hocker was third in 8:05.70 and New Zealand’s Geordie Beamish finished fourth in 8:05.73.
Since then, Fisher has set world short track records in the 3000m and 5000m, the former at last year’s Millrose Games, and become a double Olympic medallist. Hocker has won Olympic 1500m and world 5000m titles and finished a narrow runner-up to Fisher in that Millrose Games 3000m, and Beamish has become a world 3000m steeplechase and world indoor 1500m champion.
Both Fisher and Hocker recently raced 2000m indoors, Fisher (4:49.48) finishing second to Hobbs Kessler in Boston as they both dipped under the previous world short track best and Hocker clocking 4:52.92 in another race in Blacksburg.
Adding further strength to the field is Great Britain’s 2022 world 1500m champion Jake Wightman, who finished fourth in the Boston 2000m last weekend, and Australia’s world indoor 3000m bronze medallist Ky Robinson.
Fresh from that world 2000m short track best in Boston, Kessler returns to the track to contest the NYRR Wanamaker Mile and this time he takes on his US compatriot Yared Nuguse.
Olympic 1500m bronze medallist Nuguse will be going for his fourth consecutive Wanamaker Mile victory, one year on from setting a world short track record of 3:46.63. That record was later improved to 3:45.14 by Jakob Ingebrigtsen in Lievin.
Kessler was second to Nuguse last year, also finishing inside the previous record, while Australia’s Cameron Myers was third in an outright world U20 record. More recently, Myers claimed a dominant 3000m win in an Oceanian record in Boston. Ireland’s Andrew Coscoran was second and they meet again in the mile, joined by Australia’s Ollie Hoare and Germany’s Robert Farken.
In the women’s event, USA’s three-time Wanamaker Mile champion Elle St. Pierre will want to maintain her winning momentum, having triumphed in Boston – her first track race since the Paris 2024 Olympic Games following pregnancy.
St. Pierre, the 2024 world indoor champion, gave birth to her second son in May but she returned to win the 3000m in Boston ahead of Australia’s Linden Hall and Olympic 1500m silver medallist Jessica Hull, and all three race the mile in New York. In a strong field, they will go up against Kenya’s world 1500m silver medallist Dorcus Ewoi and Susan Ejore-Sanders, plus USA’s Heather Maclean, Nikki Hiltz and Sinclaire Johnson.
The women’s 1000m will pit Ethiopia’s 2024 world indoor 800m champion and Olympic silver medallist Tsige Duguma against USA’s Sage Hurta-Klecker and Great Britain’s Jemma Reekie, while the 3000m will feature Japan’s Nozomi Tanaka, Great Britain’s Hannah Nuttall and NCAA record-holders Jane Hedengren and Doris Lemngole.
Five sub-1:43 men clash in the men’s 800m – Ireland’s world fourth-place finisher Cian McPhillips, USA’s 2024 world indoor champion Bryce Hoppel and 2019 world champion Donavan Brazier racing again after taking the top three spots in the 600m in Boston. They are joined by Britain’s 2023 world bronze medallist Ben Pattison and Spain’s Olympic and world fifth-place finisher Mohamed Attaoui.
Charlton returns to world record track
Another world record-holder returning to the Millrose Games is Bahamian Devynne Charlton, who set the first of her two world 60m hurdles records in New York in 2024.
She clocked 7.67 that day and then improved the world record to 7.65 to win the world indoor title the following month.
Now she is back in New York as a two-time world indoor champion and she faces another two-time global gold medallist, Jamaica’s Danielle Williams who won her world 100m hurdles titles in 2015 and 2023. It will be a Boston rematch, as Williams won there ahead of Charlton, 7.87 to 7.92. Christina Clemons was third and she also races again.
In the men’s 60m hurdles, USA’s two-time Millrose Games winner Dylan Beard will go for three consecutive victories, up against world 110m hurdles champion Cordell Tinch and Daniel Roberts, the Olympic silver and 2023 world bronze medallist.
The Boston 60m winners will both seek success again in New York – Jamaica’s Ackeem Blake in the men’s event and Great Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith in the women’s.
US 17-year-old Cooper Lutkenhaus, who ran a national U20 800m record of 1:45.23 in New York last weekend, drops down to contest the 600m. The women’s event features 2022 world indoor 800m champion Ajee' Wilson, Roisin Willis and Juliette Whittaker.
USA’s two-time world shot put gold medallist Joe Kovacs will open his first full indoor season, as part of a field also featuring Rajindra Campbell, Josh Awotunde, Roger Steen and Chuk Enekwechi.
Greek Olympic and world pole vault gold medallist Katerina Stefanidi will compete for the first time since September 2024 following pregnancy, returning to a meeting at which she has won four times. She will be joined by USA’s Emily Grove and Gabriela Leon.
