At the US Indoor Championships in Boston Jen Toomey showed that she is the number one at 1500 meters in the US. In a race that was not very fast at first the field remained together until after 600m. Then a group of six got away from the rest. Toomey and McWilliams tried to break away from the rest multiple times, but the others followed again and again. Finally in the last lap, Jen Toomey attacked and did break away from her opponents. Treniere Clement and Jenelle Deatherage tried to follow her, but weren’t successful. Toomey won in 4:13.25 minutes. Clement got second place (4:14.20) and Christin Wurth (4:14.74) was third.
At the 1,00m men’s race a newcomer won the indoor title. The young Scott McGowan showed that one has to pay attention to him this year. Especially because these were his first major championships. In 3:44.06 minutes he won in front of Rob Myers (3:45.18) and the actual favorite Charlie Gruber who came in after 3:36.11. McGowan and Myers got away from the rest and in the last lap newcomer McGowan sprinted to a clear victory.
The men’s 3,000m began with a false start. After the next start succeeded the field stayed together and reached a 1000m time of 2:39 minutes. After the 2000m mark (5:18) a group of three, among them Bolota Asmerom and Jonathon Riley, got away. Asmerom tried to break away from Riley but failed. The distance between them and the rest of the field increased. Before the last lap Riley overtook Bolota and increased the pace. Asmerom tried to follow but failed to do so. Jonathon Riley won in 7:53.73 in front of Bolota Asmerom who got second place in 7:53.81. Third was Luke Watson in 7:57.23.
The most thrilling race was the women’s 3,000m. Favorite and two times Olympian Shayne Culpepper and Amy Rudolph started the race relatively slow. In the seventh lap Amy Rudolph tried to get away and increased the pace. Culpepper followed immediately and both increased the pace more and more. Lauren Fleshman tried to stay close to the leading duo and finally caught up with them. After the tenth lap Shayne Culpepper tried to get away from Rudolph and Fleshman. Shayne couldn’t get the leading position; instead Fleshman took over with two laps to go. Amy Rudolph had problems to follow Fleshman and Culpepper.
With a lap time of 36 seconds the pace increased once more, and Culpepper finally got away from Fleshman and Rudolph. She won with a new personal best time of 8:55.57. Amy Rudolph became second (8:57.42), Lauren Fleshman finished third in 8:59.93 which also is a personal best.
The 800m women’s race did not provide an exciting event. Hazel Clark was the favorite—and she won the title in the end. After a fast start with a 29.05 seconds lap, the pace was kept relatively high. There was no danger for Clark who finished in 2:01.98 minutes. Alice Schmidt was second with 2:02.32 while Kameisha Bennett took third place in 2:02.77. “I came to win—and I succeeded,” Hazel Clark said.
It was much closer in the men’s 800m. After a quick first half of 52.49 seconds Derrick Peterson, who was one of the favorites, fell. It was not until the last few meters that the race was decided. Kevin Hicks came from behind to win in 1:48.73 minutes. Richard Smith was second (1:48.80) and Joel Legare took third place (1:48.86). Fred Sharpe had been leading for most of the race but had to be content with fourth place.
