Feb 9, 2019; New York, NY, USA; Yomif Kejelcha (ETH) poses with trophy after winning the Wanamaker Mile in 3:48.46 – 0.01 off the world record of 3:48.45 set by Hicham El Guerrouj (MAR) in 1997 – during the 112th Millrose Games at The Armory. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
February 10, 2019
(Reuters) – Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha missed tying the world indoor mile record by one-hundredth of a second and Kenya’s Michael Saruni clocked the third fastest indoor 800m of all-time as young Africans highlighted the NYRR Millrose Games in New York on Saturday.
Kejelcha raced home in three minutes, 48.46 seconds as the 21-year-old almost took down Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj’s 1997 world record.
Saruni won the 800m in a national record 1:43.98.
Only Kenyan-born world record holder Wilson Kipketer of Denmark has run faster with times of 1:42.67 and 1:43.96 in 1997.
The 23-year-old Saruni sprinted past American Donavan Brazier in the closing straight to claim victory.
Brazier beat Johnny Gray’s 1992 U.S. record with a time of 1:44.41, the seventh-fastest ever. Gray had clocked 1:45.00.
(Reporting by Gene Cherry in Raleigh, North Carolina, editing by Ed Osmond)
