Millrose Games adds some new twists

New York's annual convention for the stopwatch and tape-measure crowd, the Millrose Games, Friday night will feature eight-time Wanamaker Mile champion Bernard Lagat, an encore battle of decorated shot put champions, an abbreviated version of the 10-event decathlon and a U.S. vs. Jamaica challenge in both the men's and women's sprint.

Among countless other acts of athletic derring-do.

The elite track and field meet - the oldest continuous sports event in Madison Square Garden, dating to 1914 - will present the usual array of high school and college relays, a women's pole vault, a quirky sprint among athletes from other sports, even a gimmicky relay between teams of New York policemen and New York firemen. "New York's Finest" and "New York's Bravest" thereby will skirmish over which can call itself "New York's Fastest."

Entering its 104th running, Millrose predates the three Madison Square Garden buildings, having first been contested in 1908 in a New York armory. From its early days, spotlighting employees of the now-defunct Wanamaker department stores, Millrose quickly evolved into the "Indoor Olympics," regularly recruiting some of the top names from the Olympic Games.

It has outlived the lengthy indoor track season of up to five New York meets, which began to disappear in the 1970s. Still, Millrose remains a showcase for the sport.

Lagat, the 36-year-old Kenyan-born American, last year broke one of the Garden's grander records, the seven career Wanamaker Mile victories by "chairman of the boards" Eamonn Coghlan of Ireland. Friday, Lagat mostly likely will be challenged by 23-year-old Ethiopian Deresse Mekonnen, reigning world indoor champion at 1,500 meters who edged Lagat for the silver medal at that distance in the 2009 world outdoor championships.

In the shot put, world champion Christian Cantwell and a pair of former world champs, Reese Hoffa and Adam Nelson, will reprise their Millrose scrap of the past two years.

SEE PHOTOSLI high school athletes at the Millrose Games

A muscular cousin of the shot put will be tonight's first Millrose three-event challenge among five men who make their living in the decathlon - the two-day, 10-event running, throwing and jumping competition that, in bygone days, made Bob Mathias, Rafer Johnson, Bruce Jenner and Dan O'Brien household names.

Such is not the case anymore. Tonight's participants - reigning Olympic champion Bryan Clay, 2009 world champ Trey Hardee and 2012 Olympic prospect Ashton Eaton - hardly dent the public consciousness but can be expected to hammer on each other in the 60-meter hurdles, high jump and shot put.

Good enough for Clay. "You have to know why you're doing things," he said. "You've got to be grounded and not in it for the accolades. You have to do it because you love it. You have to have pure intentions."