Lagat leads run on record book

Not the venue, maybe, of their extravagant past, the 105th Millrose Games nevertheless was able to double-down on track and field's essence at The Armory Saturday night.

With elite racers and jumpers in search of gaudy world-class numbers, and potentially offering a glimpse of the London Olympics five months hence, Matthew Centrowitz won the marquee Wanamaker Mile in a hot 3:53.92 to bring down the curtain on the first non-Madison Square Garden Millrose since 1913.

And Bernard Lagat, eight times the Wanamaker champ, used the occasion to move up to the 5,000 meters and promptly led a slash-and-burn attack on the record books.

His legs appearing to grow longer with each lap, Lagat reeled off an American indoor record 13:07.15 and, in his wake, protege Lawi Lelang, Kenya's University of Arizona sophomore (13:08.28), and Lelang's Arizona teammate/Kenyan countryman Stephen Sambu (13:13.74) both bettered the collegiate mark. In seventh place, Kenya's Edward Cheserek, a high school student at St. Benedict's of Newark, rewrote the prep record at 13:57.04.

Reigning world outdoor champion Jenny Simpson, attempting to seize the momentum among the next wave of top American middle-distance runners, pounded out a 4:07.27 victory in the women's 1,500 meters, edging 2008 Olympic finalist Shannon Rowbury, 4:07.66. (Stony Brook University senior Lucy Van Dalen, a New Zealand national, was seventh in 4:11.78, a school record.)

Meet officials no longer were wearing tuxedos and Millrose's prominent place on the New York sports calendar may be diminished, but indoor track's chaos seemed alive and well in a roar-of-the-liniment, smell-of-the-crowd experience. More than 5,000 spectators spilled onto trackside five deep and shared hallways and stairways with athletes warming up for their turns at good times.

Sanya Richards Ross, the former Olympic relay gold medalist and world champion who said she wanted to follow husband Aaron Ross' Super Bowl success with a 400-meter victory, did so in 50.89. Olympic 400 gold medalist LaShawn Merritt, taking a shot at the world 500 indoor record, came fairly close at 1:01.39.

World champion and early London Olympic favorite Jesse Williams won the high jump at 7-71/4. American record-holder Jenn Suhr won the pole vault at 15-1/4. Kristi Castin (7.91), formerly of Virginia Tech, upset Tiffany Porter, expected to represent Great Britain at the Olympics, in the women's 60-meter hurdles. Keston Bledman of Trinidad & Tobago won the men's 60 meters in 6.62 seconds.

The whole thing played out a healthy subway ride north of Madison Square Garden, where the Millrose first was staged in the original Garden in 1908 and enjoyed an unbroken annual run in the four similarly named buildings from 1914 through last year. But dwindling crowds and soaring expenses conspired to land the world's most famous indoor meet at 168th Street and Broadway in Manhattan.

Further, a messy disagreement between two of the sport's major shoe companies -- one with ties to many of the world's top track stars, the other with its title on the Armory's facility -- forced Millrose to compete for talent with a simultaneous event in Fayetteville, Ark., which the sport's national federation strongly promoted even as it ignored the relocated Millrose.

The Armony's lighting gave Simpson, running wire to wire, the sense of being chased by shadows. But she never was caught, and it was "the first peek the athletes and everybody, to see where our training is going," she said. "Success early in the season and on a good track and with a good field and good audience at the Armory is indicative of great training over the winter. I wouldn't go so far as saying it's going to be a fortune teller for the Olympics, but . . ."