Photo above by Victah/www.photorun.net of Alan Webb winning his 2007 Indoor USA Men's Mile title.

Alan Webb and Chris Lukezic Compete
Within Driving Distance of Local Fans
Two-time Olympic 1500m medalist Bernard Lagat (32) and Craig Mottram, the World Championship bronze medalist at 5000 meters, will face each other in the Mile at the Reebok Grand Prix on June 2 in New York.

Among other contenders in the sizzling field will be 2-time USA Outdoor 1500m champion (2004 & 2005) and 2007 USA Indoor Mile champion Alan Webb (24) of Reston, VA; Chris Lukezic of Washington, DC, the 2006 US Indoor 1500m Champion; and Nick Willis of New Zealand, the 2006 Commonwealth Games gold medalist at 1500 meters.

Both Lagat and Webb have won USA Outdoor 1500m men's national titles, and they will focus on that distance during the 2007 outdoor track season. The 2007 AT&T USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships are June 20-24 in Indianapolis, IN.

Joining them at Icahn Stadium on Randall's Island is an international roster of track and field illuminaries that includes two dozen Olympic and World Championships medalists; top billing goes to Ethiopia's female sensation Tirunesh Dibaba at 5000 meters. Dibaba, a 2005 double World Champion at 5000m and 10,000m, broke her own World Indoor Record at 5000m at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games in January and is ranked #1 in the world. Last year, countrywoman Meseret Defar broke the World Record for 5000m at the Reebok Grand Prix Meet in what was named the Performance of the Year by any woman in the sport.

The Men's Mile will serve as a rematch between the men who finished an exciting one-two at the 100th Millrose Games on February 2, where Lagat and Mottram dueled (www.photorun.net at left) until Lagat took control on the final lap for his fifth Wanamaker Mile victory. Kenyan-born and Washington State alumnus Lagat is the American Record-holder at 1500m outdoors, as well as 1500m and the Mile indoors; he is married with one toddler son. Mottram, the Australian National Record-holder at the Mile, 3000m and 5000m, is also well-known in New York as a two-time winner of the Healthy Kidney 10K and champion of the 2005 Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile.

Two of the brightest high school stars in the country are set to compete in the elite open division of the Reebok Grand Prix. Matthew Centrowitz, a senior at Broadneck High School in Annapolis, MD, will run the Mile, while Bianca Knight, a senior at Ridgeland High School in Ridgeland, MS, will compete at 200 meters.

Centrowitz, who is bound for the University of Oregon, set a Class 4A and Maryland state record on Saturday when he won the state title at 1600 meters in 4:04.09, the top high school time in the US this season. A three-time state cross-country champion, he also holds the nation's fastest high school time in the mile this year, thanks to his victory at the Penn Relays in 4:08.38 - a time that broke the 35-year-old meet record.

At the Reebok Grand Prix, young Centrowitz has a unique goal: to break the 4:02.7 high school mile personal best set by his father, Matt Sr., in 1973 while running for Power Memorial High School in Manhattan. The elder Centrowitz is a New York running legend, ranked the #1 high school miler in the country in 1973, and the first New Yorker to break 9 minutes for 2 miles. The American University Track & Field Head Coach is a two-time Olympian and former American Record-holder at 5000 meters.

The third annual Reebok Grand Prix, named one of the two top international track and field events in the country, will begin at 5 pm on Saturday, June 2 at the state-of-the-art Icahn Stadium, on Randall's Island in New York. It is the third stop of USA Track & Field's Visa Championship Series. Tickets, at $20, $30 and $40 each, are available by calling 1-877-TIX-TRAC. For more information and event updates, visit the event website at www.ReebokGrandPrix.com.

The Reebok Grand Prix will be broadcast by ESPN2 from 11:00 pm to 12:30 am on Saturday. CBS will offer one hour of coverage on Sunday starting at 1:00 pm.

Alan Webb won the Drake Relays Men's Invitational Mile in 3:51.71 on Saturday, April 28 in Des Moines, IA.