INDIANAPOLIS- USA Track & Field's 2004 Indoor Golden Spike Tour
begins January 31 at the adidas Boston Indoor Games, as
sprint/hurdle
great Gail Devers and distance-running legend Haile Gebrselassie
are
among the athletes looking for record-setting performances. The
meet
will be broadcast live on Saturday from 6-7 p.m. Eastern Time,
on ESPN2.Devers, a two-time Olympic 100m gold medalist and seven-time
world
champion, will try to break her own indoor American record
(7.74) in the
Verizon women's 60m hurdles. Gebrselassie, from Ethiopia, who
has two
Olympic gold medals in the 10,000 meters and nine World
Championship
titles at various distances, is trying to take back the 3,000
meters
world indoor record, which Daniel Komen broke in 1998 with his
record
time of 7:24.90. Gebrselassie will compete in the adidas men's
3,000m on
Saturday.
Several other athletes will attempt to set new world, American or
national marks at the meet. David Krummenacker, the defending
800m World
Indoor Champion, wants to break his own 1000m American record
(2:17.86)
in the adidas men's 1,000 meters, which he set at this meet in
2002.
Stacy Dragila, the 2000 Olympic gold medalist, will try to break
her
American record of 4.78 meters/15 feet, 8.25 inches in the Visa
women's
pole vault.
Joey Woody, the 400m silver medalist at the 2003 World Outdoor
Championships in the 400m hurdles, will attempt to break the 600m
American record (1:15.80 by Chip Jenkins, 1987). In addition,
Derartu
Tulu (ETH), Tirunesh Dibaba (ETH) and Meseret Defar (ETH) have
set their
sights on the 5000m world record (14:47.25), which was set by
Gabriela
Szabo in 1998.
Other top Americans scheduled to compete include World Outdoor
Championships 200m gold medalist John Capel, 2001 World Indoor
200m gold
medalist Shawn Crawford, Olympic 4x100m relay gold medalist Jon
Drummond; and World Outdoor 200m silver medalist Darvis Patton
in the
Verizon men's 60m; teen sensation Allyson Felix and World
Outdoor 4x400m
gold medalist Me'lisa Barber in the 400m; American indoor record
holder
Nicole Teter in the Sunny D Intense Sport Drink women's 800; two-
time
U.S. indoor mile champion Jason Lunn in the men's 3,000m; 2-time
U.S.
outdoor 1,500m champion Seneca Lassiter in the mile; and Olympic
bronze
medalist Melissa Morrison and 2001 world indoor and outdoor
champion
Anjanette Kirkland in the Verizon women's 60m hurdles.
The ninth-annual Boston Indoor Games will be held at the Reggie
Lewis
Track & Athletic Center at Roxbury Community College, and will
be the
first stop on USA Track & Field's Indoor Golden Spike Tour.
Tickets are
available on-line at BostonIndoorGames or
by calling 617-536-7030.
The 2004 Indoor Golden Spike Tour continues February 6 at the
Verizon
Millrose Games at New York's Madison Square Garden, and on
February 14
resumes at the Tyson Foods Invitational in Fayetteville,
Arkansas. The
Tour then returns to Boston's Reggie Lewis Center for the 2004
USA
Indoor Track & Field Championships, held February 27-29. On
March 6-7,
the USA Indoor Combined Events Championships will be held for
the third
consecutive year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill.
For more information on the 2004 Indoor Golden Spike Tour visit
USATF