NEW BALANCE GRAND PRIX, MILLROSE GAMES ANNOUNCE ATHLETES
By David Monti
(c) 2012 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved (Used by permission)

(19-Jan) -- Organizers of the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston, and the Millrose Games in New York, both announced that more top middle distance athletes would be competing in their meets on Feb. 4 and 11, respectively.

In Boston, USA 10,000m record holder Galen Rupp will test his speed against training partner Mo Farah in the mile. Rupp, 25, one of America's most versatile distance runners, has surprising leg speed for a 10-K athlete. Indoors, Rupp has run 3:56.22 for the mile on an over-sized track, and has run 3:57.72 outdoors.

"The oval at Reggie has always been good to me," said Rupp, referring to the Reggie Lewis Track Facility in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood where the meet will take place. "I'm ready to see what I can do indoors in the mile."

In New York, world 1500m champion Jenny Simpson will face world indoor 1500m champion Kalkidan Gezahegn, and 2009 world 1500m bronze medalist Shannon Rowbury in the inaugural NYRR Wanamaker Metric Mile for Women. All three of those women have run under 4:01 for 1500m outdoors. "It's really an honor and really exciting to be part of something that will have an incredible legacy," Simpson said of the first Millrose Games 1500m race for women to be held on New York's 200-meter Armory track. "It's all very exciting for the athletes. It's something that I really believe in."

Also competing at Millrose will be a strong supporting cast of North American women, including the United States' Gabriele Anderson (4:06.77 PB), Lauren Centrowitz (4:10.23), Katie Follett (4:07.44), Maggie Infeld (4:10.57), Liz Maloy (4:09.24), and Canada's Nicole Sifuentes (4:06.34). Spain's Isabel Macias (4:06.50) and New Zealand's Lucy Van Dalen (4:11.59) will also compete.