News18 Dec 2014


Suhr, Cain and Centrowitz return to Boston

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USA's Jenn Suhr at the 2013 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston (© Victah Sailer)

Four more US stars who have graced an Olympic Games or IAAF World Championships podium – Jenn Suhr, Mary Cain, Matthew Centrowitz, and Brenda Martinez – have been added to the roster of the 20th edition of the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix, an IAAF Indoor Permit meeting, on 7 February.

Among the most-anticipated races of the evening will be an attempt on the world best in the women’s distance medley relay, an event featuring legs, in order, of 1200m, 400m, 800m, and 1600m. It will be the first time that the event will be contested in meeting’s history. 

Martinez, the world 800m bronze medallist, will be among the featured athletes on a Team New Balance squad, which will be challenged by teams from Ireland, the New Jersey-New York Track Club, Boston College, and Harvard University.

The current world best for the event is 10:50.98, set at the 2009 NCAA Championships by a University of Tennessee team consisting of Phoebe Wright, Brittany Jones, Chanelle Price, and Sarah Bowman.

Suhr, the Olympic pole vault champion and reigning world indoor record holder, returns to one of her favourite venues where the 32-year-old has set three US records.

Cain, 18, rewrote the record books in 2013 by breaking high school and/or US junior marks at eight distances, and in 2014 won the US 1500m indoor title and the world junior 3000m crown.

Earlier this year, she broke her own world junior indoor 1000m record at this meeting when she ran 2:35.80 and, once again, she will line up over 1000m in Boston.

Centrowitz won the 2011 world 1500m bronze medal. In 2013, he moved up one place on the podium, earning a silver medal, and will also compete over 1000m.

The four US stars join the previously announced Jenny Simpson, the 2011 1500m world champion and 2014 Diamond Race winner over the distance, at the next edition of a meeting which has played host to seven world records and 11 US records.

Organisers for the IAAF