Norwich Union London Grand Prix Videos

Lagat, Webb, Bekele & Mottram

The Norwich Union London Grand Prix took place today in England and there were some fascinating results, including some great performances from the brave Americans that entered this prestigious meet.

American distance runners, in the past, have been reluctant to travel to Europe and compete in these high quality track meets, which sometimes don't even have a non-African in the distance events, but this weekend the Americans proved they belonged with the USA taking 1st and 2nd in the 1500 meters, as Alan Webb (2nd- 3:33.16) almost caught Bernard Lagat (3:33.12) at the line, beating World 5000m Champion Eliud Kipchoge (4th- 3:33.80) in the process. Rob Myers (former Ohio State Buckeye) punched his ticket to the World Championships with his 3:34.89 personal best breakthrough for 6th place, while Webb's sometime training partner, Chris Lukezic of Georgetown, placed 8th in 3:35.22 to earn his trip to Helsinki. This means the United States will be sending three athletes in the 1500 meters come August- Webb, Myers, and Lukezic.

The men's 5000 meter race also showcased some of America's brightest young stars, with marathoner and American 10,000 meter Champion, Abdi Abdirahman having the race of his life to breakthrough with his wicked 4th place, 13:13.32 personal best, chopping nearly 6-seconds off of his personal best. He is a training partner of 1500 meter specialist, Bernard Lagat, in Arizona, and has quite minimal leg-speed and an awkward running form. However, following Abdirahman was American 5000 meter Champion, Tim Broe (formerly of Alabama and an old nemesis), with a steady performance at 13:13.93 (6th), which was within a second of his personal best. I was expecting Broe to run closer to 13:07.20 in this race, but perhaps this race just shook out the rust and the time will follow in the near future, as he is one of the best 5000m specialists in the world. Ryan Hall followed in 9th place with a steady 13:23.20, which is slower than what he ran at the USATF Championships, but at least the performance establishes some consistency over the distance for the young Stanford graduate. 11th place went to US Marathon Champion, Alan Culpepper, as he rolled to a modest personal best of 13:25.75 while mixing it up with the track boys and leading a struggling Ian Dobson to 13th in 13:28.42.

Below is a link for videos of the Men's 1500 & 5000 meter races, courtesy of time-to-run.co.uk... leaving me wishing for coverage like this in the States...
http://www.time-to-run.co.uk/track/crystal-palace/2005/