BOSTON, Mass. —Nick Symmonds, the 2013 IAAF World Championships silver medalist and third-fastest American 800-meter runner in history, will headline an attempt to break the 4×800-meter relay World Record at the 2014 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix, organizers announced today.
Symmonds will lead a Brooks Beast Track Club team that also features Matt Scherer, Mark Wieczorek, and Cas Loxsom. Also going after the record will be a team from the New Jersey-New York Track Club led by Robby Andrews, the 2011 NCAA Champion at 800 meters and 2010 World Junior Championships bronze medalist.
The 4×800-meter World Record of 7:13.94 was set at this meet in 2000 by a Global Athletics & Marketing team of Joey Woody, Karl Paranya, Rich Kenah, and David Krummenacker.
The New Balance Grand Prix, an Olympic-style all-star event, will take place on Feb. 8 at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center at Roxbury Community College. Tickets are on sale atwww.nbindoorgrandprix.com or by calling 1-877-849-8722.
Seven other top athletes, with 14 Olympic or IAAF World Championships medals among them, have also been added. They are:
- Tomasz Majewski of Poland, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, and Christian Cantwell, a three-time World Indoor Champion and 2009 World Champion outdoors, will face the previously announced Ryan Whiting in the shot put. Whiting, the 2012 World Indoor Champion, was ranked #1 in the world for 2013.
- Shannon Rowbury, the 2009 World Championships bronze medalist whose sixth- and seventh-place finishes at the last two Olympics are the best ever by a U.S. woman at 1500 meters, will compete in the 2000 meters.
- Matthew Centrowitz, who earned medals in the last two World Championships (silver, 2013; bronze, 2011) at 1500 meters, will run the mile.
- Morgan Uceny, the three-time U.S. Champion who was ranked #1 in the world at 1500 meters in 2011, is set for the 1000 meters.
- Emma Coburn, a three-time NCAA Champion and a steeplechase finalist in the 2012 Olympics, will run the 2000 meters.
- Octavious Freeman, the rising young American sprint star who, at 21, was a finalist in the 100 meters at last summer’s World Championships and earned a silver medal on the 4×100-meter relay, will compete at 60 meters in her New Balance Indoor Grand Prix debut.
Now in its 19th year, the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix has played host to six World Records and 10 American Records. The first stop in the 2014 Indoor USATF Championship Series, the meet on Saturday, Feb. 8, will begin at a new, earlier time of 3 p.m.
