State Meet, High Performance Meet, and Reebok Grand Prix Today

While many of us are out in Holyoke watching the State Meet, there are two other meets today that should be of interest to track and field junkies.

Bentley College hosts the second meet of the Boston High Performance Series this evening. If you have never been to one of these meets, you definitely should give it a try. There's no hype and no huge crowds to deal with. Spectators can watch the meet for free and see watch high quality athletes go for fast times. At tonight's meet, Victor Gras and Tom Davis are entered in the Elite 1500 (separate heats). Peter Sun and Josh Seehermen will battle it out in open 800m. You can find more information, as well as complete start lists here:

Boston High Performance Series Web Site

Today is also the third annual Reebok Grand Prix meet in New York City. This is probably the highest quality international meet in the U.S., with more than a dozen Olympic gold medalists from around the world, including World Record-holder Liu Xiang (110m hurdles), Veronica Campbell (100m), Nick Hysong (pole vault) and Stacy Dragila (pole vault). Also in the lineup are World Champions Allyson Felix, who will double
at 100 meters and 400 meters; Bershawn Jackson (400m hurdles); Torri Edwards (100 meters); and Tirunesh Dibaba, the double World Champion at 5000 and 10,000 meters and World Indoor Record-holder at 5000 meters.

Here's more info from the meet press release:

"Last year, Meseret Defar thrilled the crowd when she broke the 5000-meter World Record, and rumor has it that Dibaba will be aiming to break it again. On the mens side, a deep international field is out to run the 5000 meters in under 13 minutes for the first time on US soil. At least five athletes in the field, led by Kenyas Edwin Soi, ran under 13 minutes in 2006. The All-Comers Record they willl be shooting for was set here last year, when Abraham Chebii won in 13:04.56."

"The Reebok Grand Prix will also be your chance to see rising American superstars Tyson Gay and Jenn Stuczynski. Gay, ranked #1 in the world at 200 meters and #2 at 100 meters, last summer became the fastest 100m-200m combination sprinter in history, according to IAAF scoring tables. On May 20, he won the 100m at the Addidas Track Classic in 9.79 seconds, a time that would have tied the American Record had the tailwind not been slightly over (2.5) the allowable (2.0) limit. At that same meet, Stuczynski vaulted 15 feet, 10.5 inches to break the American Record in the pole vault, held for 11 years by Dragila. That mark makes Stuczynski the third-best woman on the world all-time list."

"In a top-flight Mile field, two-time Olympic medalist Bernard Lagat and Craig Mottram, the World Championship bronze medalist at 5000 meters, headline a field that
includes Alan Webb, who holds the 2-Mile American Record; and Nick Willis, the 2006 Commonwealth Games gold medalist at 1500 meters. In a special treat, high schooler Matthew Centrowitz, son of 1970s Power Memorial High School legend Matt Centrowitz, will be in the elite open field, chasing his fathers high school personal best of 4:02.7."

The running events get underway shortly after 5 p.m. Saturday.

You can find more info at the Reebox Grand Prix web site.