Rupp To Face Gebremeskel In Boston
The 10,000m silver medalist from Oregon hopes will square off against the 5,000m silver medalist from Ethiopia.
The 10,000m silver medalist from Oregon hopes will square off against the 5,000m silver medalist from Ethiopia.
From: New Balance Grand Prix
BOSTON – Olympic pole vault champion Jenn Suhr and 10,000-meter Olympic silver medalist Galen Rupp lead the latest list of stars coming to the 2013 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix on Feb. 2, organizers announced. Suhr and Rupp, two of America’s brightest track and field stars at last year’s London Olympic Games, have so far combined to set a total of 11 American Records in their careers, and are both familiar faces at this event. They join previously announced Aries Merritt as the event’s 2013 headliners.
Jenn Suhr, who was the 2008 Olympic silver medalist, returned from London with her much sought-after Olympic gold, earned in cold, wet and windy conditions after outlasting the deepest field ever assembled in the event. Suhr, from Rochester, NY, is no stranger to Boston, where she won her first national title in the Reggie Lewis Center in 2005 as an unknown. Now ranked #1 in the world for the second-consecutive year, she has won a staggering 12 U.S. pole vault titles in the past eight years and has broken the indoor and outdoor American record seven times – most recently on a jump of 4.88m/16 feet at last year’s New Balance Indoor Grand Prix. “My first big performance of 2012 was in Boston and the year turned out to be my best ever,” said Suhr. “So I can’t wait to come back to Boston and start off this World Championships year with one of my favorite crowds.”
Galen Rupp, from Portland, OR, scored his first Olympic medal, a silver, at 10,000 meters in London, becoming the first American male to bring home an Olympic medal of any color at that distance since Billy Mills won gold in the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Earlier in 2012, Rupp set the American Record in the indoor 2-mile and won both the 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters at the U.S. Olympic Trials. “To me, indoor track is to New England what Hayward Field is to track and field in Oregon. I can’t wait to line up at the Reggie on February 2nd,” said Rupp.
Rupp will not compete unchallenged in the 3,000 meters. Organizers also announced that the 2012 Olympic silver medalist at 5,000 meters, Ethiopia’s Dejen Gebremeskel, has been added to the field. While Gebremeskel also had the world-leading time at 5,000 meters in 2012 in 12:46.81, he may be best known for defeating eventual double Olympic champion Mo Farah at the 2011 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix wearing just one shoe, after being stepped on early in the race.
The field will also include Hagos Gebrhiwet, the world junior record-holder at 5,000m and the world’s second-fastest man at the distance in 2012.
More than 100 Olympic and World Championship medalists have come to Boston to compete in this event, which has also played host to six world records, 10 American records and 19 other national records. The 18th-annual meet, which begins at 5:00 p.m. on Feb. 2 at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center at Roxbury Community College.