Millrose the world's No.1 indoor meet

The Millrose Games remains one of the great events on the annual athletics calendar. Ahead of Friday’s latest edition, spikesmag.com takes a look to find out what all the fuss is about.

Okay, athletics may have the quadrennial Olympic Games or even its biennial World Championships at its pinnacle, but no one-day event in the sport holds the glamour or indeed history of the annual Millrose Games in New York.
The 103rd edition takes place on Friday at its traditional home of Madison Square Garden and is, quite simply, the longest running one-day athletics competition in the sport’s history.

First organised in 1908, the event staged at the legendary Manhattan venue - home to NBA’s New York Knicks, NHL’s New York Rangers of the NHL and numerous world championship boxing showdowns - holds a certain romance.

But for athletics fans, Madison Square Garden, billed as the ‘World’s Most Famous Arena,’ will be forever associated with the Millrose Games, an arena which because of its size boasts a rather tight and unorthodox 160m oval rather than the standard 200m distance.

Yet the intimate track has not proved a bar to top class performances at an event, which gives elite athletes, collegiate athletes, young athletes and masters an opportunity to compete. More than 80 world records have been set at the Millrose Games and more than 100 Olympic champions have also triumphed at the famous annual indoor competition.

This year the big name performers remain of the very highest standing. Such luminaries as former World 1500m and 5000m champion Bernard Lagat, World 110m hurdles gold medallist Ryan Brathwaite and World decathlon champion Trey Hardee all compete.

And USATF director of communications Jill Geer is in little doubt about the enduring appeal of the event.

“The Millrose Games is the Boston Marathon of indoor track and field,” says Geer, who helps jointly-organise the event in her role with USATF.

“Its history alone gives it an attraction that makes it unique. All the sports greatest athletes have competed at Millrose from Eamonn Coghlan to Carl Lewis and no other indoor track meet can claim that, period. Millrose has also always been part of the fabric of New York City, especially in the mid 20th century. People would show up in suits and ties and sit and watch the meet. It was a really social event.”

Derrick Adkins, the 1996 Olympic 400m hurdles champion, and now the director of track and field for the Armory, the joint-organisers, was a two-time winner of the 500m as a senior athlete at the Millrose Games.

New York born and bred, Adkins has been intrigued by the event since sitting trackside and watching Carl Lewis leap to a world indoor long jump record of 8.79m in 1984, and he is adamant the city has been crucial to the event’s lasting success.

“Cities like New York, Boston and Oregon have a great track and field tradition and have a very international flavour to their cities, so they are going to support international sport such as athletics,” insists Adkins. “America in general loves New York City and the athletes will come here looking to have a good experience in New York.”

Which brings us to the other appealing element to the meeting – Madison Square Garden. Its small, tight 160m oval – the standard distance is 200m - may appear anathema for the modern athlete, but although Geer says it can present a ‘challenge’ athletes are far from dissuaded to compete.

“Everyone wants to be a part of Millrose, but we’ve had nights where a shot putter has nearly knocked out a pole vaulter because the infield is so small,” she adds. “The most tense moment is when you have to open the track to run the 60m and put the track back up. Sometimes they are delays.”

The centrepiece of the event, though, remains the Wanamaker Mile, named after the department store merchant Rodman Wanamaker. It traditionally provides the thrilling climax to the meeting and the 11-lap mile has provided many great moments over the years.

Past winners read like a who’s who of middle-distance greats with pride of place going to the Coghlan, the great Irish miler known affectionately as the ‘Chairman of the Boards,’ a seven-time former winner.

Nonetheless, that figure is under threat as Lagat hunting a record-breaking eighth Wanamaker mile victory on Friday.

So perhaps it is fitting that the final word should belong to the Kenyan-born US athlete, who has been so supportive of the annual event.

“The people know that Millrose Games has a lot of history, being the longest running track and field event,” Lagat told spikesmag.com. “When people come to the Millrose Games, they know the sport, feel a part of history, and appreciate the athletes that come to compete.”

***Catch live coverage of the event on Friday (29 Jan) on ESPN2 from 8pm (Eastern Time).

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