A Brief Chat With Bernard Lagat
By Peter Gambaccini
Photos by Victah Sailer
Bernard Lagat, the 2007 World Champion in the 1500 and 5000, is competing in the Reebok Grand Prix in New York on May 30 in a starstudded race that organizers hope will produce the first sub-13:00 for 5000 meters ever on U.S. soil. The field will include 2009 World Cross Country champion Gebre Gebremariam of Ethiopia, Kenyans Micah Kogo, Edwin Soi, and Haron Lagat, Juan Luis Barrios of Mexico, Abdi Abdirahman of the U.S., and Sam Chelanga, the 2008 NCAA Cross Country runnerup from Liberty University. Bernard Lagat ran his own 5000-meter best of 12:59.22 in London in 2006. On May 16, he won the 1500 at the adidas Track Classic in Carson, California in 3:36.38 (his best for 1500 in 3:26.34). He was the 2000 Olympic bronze medalist in the 1500 and a 2004 silver medalist in the event; he also won a silver medal at the 2001 World Championships. This past winter, he won his seventh Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games in New York, tying Eamonn Coghlan for the career lead in that race. A Kenyan-born U.S. citizen, Lagat holds the American indoor 3000-meter record of 7:32.43. At Washington State University in 1999, he was NCAA Indoor mile and 3000 champion and the NCAA 5000-meter champ outdoors. In 2008, battling injuries, he won the 1500 and the 5000 at the U.S. Olympic Trials but did not make the 1500 final in Beijing and was ninth in the 5000 final. Lagat, a father of two, lives in Tucson and does altitude training in Flagstaff. He is coached by James Li.
Two years ago at the Reebok Grand Prix in New York, Tariku Bekele ran a 13:04 for 5000, which was an All-Comers record, and he was virtually solo in the last stages of the race. But on May 30, there seem to be four or five of you who could take aim on going under 13:00.
Bernard Lagat: Absolutely. I think with the field that has been assembled, there is the possibility that he could see a fast race, and we could see under 13:00. Everyone is strong. If they run as fast as they always do, I think it is possible to see a sub-13:00.
