Immortality, Mortality at the Boston Indoor Games

Immortality was on display at the Boston Indoor Games Saturday night in Roxbury, but so was mortality, and the two jostled each other for attention all evening.

Meseret Defar, the Olympic and World 5000 champion, obliterated the world indoor 2-Mile record, running 9:10.50, erasing Regina Jacobs' old mark of 9:23.38 by nearly 13 seconds. Former Providence star Kim Smith chased Defar the entire way and was also well under the old standard, finishing in 9:13.93. It's true, the old record was a bit soft since the 2-Mile is rarely run at the elite level indoors, but it's a good deal less soft this morning than it was last night. As befits an immortal, Defar hinted at faster times, "I'm not running today 100 percent," she said. "I could have run faster."

It was a shame that Defar wasn't matched against Tirunesh Dibaba in the 3000, but I have no doubt that Dibaba didn't want to face Defar in a 2-Mile at this point in the season. Instead, Dibaba ran a very creditable 8:33 3000, despite a painful side stitch that seemed to hit her just past the halfway mark of the race. At that point her sister, Ejegayehu, took the lead for a couple of laps, before Tiru took command in the final laps and fought off the discomfort to win going away.

In the field events, some of the world's best athletes struggled all night. With four of the the top six shot putters in the world prowling the infield, you figured someone would get off a good throw, but the big men struggled with their timing and mechanics. After six throws each, only Christian Cantwell had managed to break 68 feet. Perhaps these guys have just seen too much of each other over the last several years. Even the usually explosive Adam Nelson seemed a bit subdued.

The women's long jump figured to be a showcase for defending Olympic heptathlon champion, and three-time defending World Champion, Carolina Kluft. On paper, no one else was even in her league. But the immortal Kluft looked like someone had slipped her Kryptonite-flavored gatorade. After her six jumps, Kluft had managed only 20-9, and had to settle for 3rd behind Lela Nelson's 21-4.

There were five separate mile races contested: the masters mile (to open the meet), the boys and girls junior invitational miles, and the men's and women's open miles.
Only the men's open mile was a disappointment.

As usual, the kids and the old guys ran hard from the gun, with a maximum of guts and a minimum of tactics. Kent Lemme won the masters mile wire-to-wire in 4:25. His opening quarter of 65 seconds stretched out the field of weathered veterans behind him like a string of burned out, barely flickering Christmas lights. In the boys mile, Luke Puskedra opened with a 60-second quarter, yielded the lead at 1000m to Colby Lowe, regained the lead with 300m to go, and had just enough strength left to repel Lowe's final kick, winning in 4:08.77 to Lowe's 4:08.99. In the girls mile, Jillian Smith followed the fast early pace and then blew away the field in the final 250 meters to win by 5 seconds in 4:48.53. Local girl Bridget Dahlberg finished strongly to nab 5th in 4:58.

In the men's and women's miles, Jenelle Deatherage (4:32.95) and Pablo Solares (4:00.34) won in races that were fairly conservative. The men's mile, in particular, looked like a race among a lot of guys who haven't done enough speedwork yet, a far cry from last year's duel between Gabe Jennings and Alan Webb.

The men's 3000m concluded the meet, and Craig Mottram sent everyone but Nick Willis home happy. Mottram, the Olympic bronze medalist, applied steady pressure over the final 8 laps to wreck Willis, who tried vainly to maintain contact but paid the price, dropping from 2nd to 5th in the final 400m. Mottram's winning time of 7:34.50 is a meet and U.S. all-comers record, eclipsing Haile Gebrsellasie's 7:35.24 from the 2004 meet.

2007 Boston Indoor Games Results