MILLROSE GAMES

Last Friday night I made my annual in-person visit to the world of track and field: the Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden.

I've been going to the Millrose Games almost every year since 1975. They've changed quite a bit since then, as has track and field in general, I'm not sure for the better. Thirty years ago there were three big track meets in Madison Square Garden every winter: The Millrose Games, the Olympic Invitational, and the National Indoor Championships, then called the AAU Indoor Championships (as it was run by the Amateur Athletic Union). Then the Olympic Invitational went across the Hudson to the Meadowlands for a year or two, and then disappeared. The AAU Championships departed for a longer track, and a bigger arena, in Atlanta if I remember correctly. (Longer tracks mean quicker times because there are fewer turns to slow the runners down.) And the AAU itself has since disappeared--the national governing body is now USA Track & Field.

But the Millrose Games stayed at the Garden. This was the 99th year, and they show no signs of departing--they announced a crowd of 14,000+. Maybe that included some no-shows, but there were plenty of people there. And they've greatly raised the ticket prices over the years, also. The best seats are now $90. (Compare this to the current price of the Indoor Championships, now in Boston. The best tickets there are $25 for each of two days. I should say that the comparison is not quite fair--I doubt the Championships have to pay any athletes appearance fees to show up, which I'm sure the Millrose Games does.)

One of the bigger changes Millrose has made in the last few years is to greatly reduce the number of college relay teams participating. There used to be dozens, divided up into many different races at the same distances. They would get colleges from all over the eastern half of the country--sometimes my Wisconsin Badgers were even represented. Now it's much more local, and there is just one race at each distance for each gender--only the top teams were invited.

They have added some other events. The women's pole vault has been contested since 1998, as it was added internationally in 1992. The men's shotput, formerly contested offsite earlier in the day, is now held in the Garden in the evening.

Other changes have been made to increase the spectator-friendliness of the event. A very upbeat announcer/interviewer is used, instead of the old monotone name and number guy. Rock and hip-hop music is played in the background. Videos are shown up on the scoreboard screens between running events--anything to keep the audience from being bored (and also to that end they have eliminated the individual races longer than a mile--there used to be one for each gender).

Last year they made another big change. Previously they would have the short sprints and hurdle races in the middle of the evening. This required them to disassemble the running track at both ends, and then reassemble it for the remaining longer events. It's a good 15 minutes for the former, and a bit longer for the latter. But last year they put the short races at the end of the night, so they never had to reassemble the track. I thought this worked pretty well, but someone thought otherwise. This year they went back to the old way.

Anyhow, I went, and I was immediately put off because I was early, but they had already started--my ticket said 6:30, but the program said things had started at 6:00. Now the events I missed certainly weren't of any great importance--first a pair of 4X400m Masters relays (masters being athletes over 40 years of age), one for each gender--then a couple of 4-lap relays for "youths" (youths being undefined in the program--apparently elementary schoolers, judging from the names of the teams entered). (Strangely, a lap this year was 145 meters, slightly shorter than the standard 160 yards.) Finally there was a "junior girls" 800m race, with contestants 11 to 14 years of age--the single 14 year-old being imported from California.

I missed all that, and I wasn't happy. I got to my seat in time for several 4X400m relays for high schoolers from differing geographical areas, plus one for Catholic high school girls. The last two were for the NYC public high schools. All of these races had several loud cheering sections, urging on their schoolmates.

I really wasn't too interested in any of these, except if a race was close. But at 7:00 they finally got to my favorite event, the pole vault. They started with the women's competition. This has been a Millrose event only since 1998, after being added internationally in 1992. Seven of the eight previous years it was won by Stacy Dragila, the American record holder both indoors and out. But this year she was absent. Present, however, was the second best American, Jenn Stuczynski. The announcer gave her a big build-up. But the event, and Stuczynski, were a big disappointment. There were six competitors, and one was eliminated at each of the first two heights (three misses in a row and you're out). Stuczynski passed at both heights, saving her energy for the higher ones. All four remaining made 4.40m (14-5¼), Stuczynski being the only one who needed two attempts. Then all four missed all three of their attempts at 4.47m (14-8¼)--12 misses in a row, which is not terribly exciting. And that was it. One vaulter became the winner because she had fewer misses. Stuczynski actually came in fourth, because of her miss at 4.40m--she only took 5 vaults altogether.

There was one nice thing about the event, though. They had a lighted sign that gave the vaulter's name and height attempted after each vault. This was very helpful, because they did not wear any numbers or names on their skimpy uniforms (think two-piece bathing suit).

Then the male pole vaulters started warming up. Meanwhile, there had been all sorts of races going on, plus the women's high jump--a track meet has been likened to a three-ring circus. Curiously, there was no men's high jump. Included was the longest individual event of the evening, at least time-wise: the men's one-mile race walk. The only ones longer were a couple of 4X800m relays.

Race-walking is this ridiculous-looking thing where the competitors are required to keep one foot on the ground at all times (there are judges stationed around the track to check on this). The result is this weird hip-swinging gait, especially at a distance of only a mile (in the Olympics the men walk 20K and 50K, 13+ miles and 30 miles). The winner took less than 6 minutes--only two minutes less than it takes athletes to run it. After a relay they held the Girls' High School Mile (with lots of screaming schoolmates in the stands). It was won by Danielle Tauro from Southern Regional (NJ) H.S.--last year's fifth place finisher.

Eventually they got to the end of the first set of races on the track, and a crew of men (I think they were all men) came out to disassemble the ends of the banked oval.
Meanwhile they got the men's pole vault going. I think it may actually have started a bit ahead of schedule, because the women's had gone so fast. Again there were six competitors. The men did attach their names to their shirts, so I could tell who they were, at least with my binoculars. As usual Toby Stephenson stood out as the only one wearing a helmet.

The men's competition was much better, with the lead changing hands several times. One competitor, Brad Walker, strategically passed his last two attempts at a height after missing. That gave him only two shots at the next one, but he made it on the second one. Then he passed the height after that entirely. Eventually it came down to him and Jeff Hartwig, a four-time winner of the event (though not since 2002). They both took three shots at 5.80m (19-0¼), but neither could make it. But Walker had passed at 5.73m (18-9½), which Hartwig made, so he won.

Meanwhile, they finished with the track, and ran the straight races down the middle of the arena. The runners actually go under the stands past the finish line, where there's a mat-covered wall to stop them. First they had the hurdles, men's and women's, college and open. 39-year old Gail Devers was making her return to competition after a year off to give birth to her first child. She finished far out, coming in fourth. The most memorable part of the hurdles was Andrea Bliss, who hit a hurdle and crashed to the floor, injuring her arm. She was down on the floor a long time, before she was ready to get up--a tween girl sitting next to me was amazed that the photographers just took her picture, rather than helping her. She's got a lot to learn about life and work. They tried to make a big deal of Terrence Trammell's attempt to be the first man to win both the hurdles and the dash at the Millrose Games, but he only placed third over the barriers.

Then they removed the hurdles for the dashes. They had the "Fastest Kid in New York City" 50m races for boys and girls 8-9 years old (they were cute, but a couple seemed really scared being out in front of thousands of people). That was followed by 60m races for high schoolers, then collegians, and finally the adult dashes. None of the names seemed terribly familiar except Trammell's, who came in third again.

When all that was done the crew returned to reassemble the track. They had a lot of trouble--by the time they were done they were half an hour behind schedule.

Meanwhile in the center of the field they set up for the men's shotput. This was a featured event--usually the throwing events, the shot put and weight throw (the indoor version of the hammer throw) are held earlier in the day in a more spacious building. But the U.S. has some very good athletes in the men's shot (some rather animated) so Millrose put them in primetime and prime place--despite the danger of having 16 lb. steel balls flying through the air. And sure enough, while they were warming up, one throw landed smack dab in the middle of the pole vault runway. Fortunately it didn't hit anyone, but it did wake some people up in that area.

As I said, some of the shot putters are animated. They are all big, strong guys, of course. But they have to be as fast as they are strong. Today practically all major shot putters use the spin technique, turning in the throwing circle much like a discus thrower, so it's not just strength and technique. One guy did a cartwheel after being introduced. Another guy has been trying to find a sponsor for a while. Last year he had "This Space For Rent" or something like that, printed on his t-shirt. This year it said "Still No Sponsor." There were four competitors here.

Somehow they chose four spectators from the stands. Each drew the name of one of the shot putters from a hat, and prizes would be awarded to the spectators depending on where "their" man finished. The first prize was a $100 gift card from the sponsor of the event, Visa.

The competition got under way. The announcer, and sometimes the competitors themselves, tried to get the crowd cheering. The T-shirt guy (I forget his name) has this routine before he throws. He stands way out in the landing area, exhorting the crowd. Then he strides to the throwing ring, pulling off his t-shirt and casting it aside. Then he gets to the ring, picks up the shot and throws it. This year his undershirt said "But My Mom Still Loves Me."

Reese Hoffa, last year's winner, did 21.00m (68-10¾) on his first throw, and he need not have thrown again--no one could equal it. Christian Cantwell came close, at 20.88m (68-6), but that was it. However, Hoffa (obviously the favorite of the tween girl sitting next to me--if she ever loses her voice she'll find it in my left ear) did not stop there. His second throw was even longer: 21.65m (71-0½). He followed that with a couple more throws over 21m. His winning throw broke his own Madison Square Garden record--it was 3 centimeters more than he did last year.

Eventually they got the running track back together, way past 10:00pm. They ran the women's mile, where Carmen Douna-Hussar won for the third year in a row. Her Canadian compatriots took the next two spots also, to the chagrin of the very vocal group urging on Ethiopian Mestawot Tadesse. It was a competitive race, but not very fast--14 seconds over the Millrose record. This was followed by the women's 800m, easily won by Jamaican Kenia Sinclair. (The Ethiopian runner came in fifth.) The men's 500m was next--nothing remarkable.

Then came the Boys' High School Mile--time for more schoolmate screaming. The announcer made a big deal of John Coghlan, all the way from Ireland. This would be his first time running on a banked track. It showed--he came in eighth. It was an exciting race, with Dan McManamon of Shenandehowa H.S. in Clifton Park, NY winning by less than a second.

The final event was the "Wanamaker Mile for the Rodman Wanamaker Trophy." It was named after the son of the founder of the Wanamaker Department stores, and it has remained the biggest event in the Millrose Games--despite the fact that there hasn't been a Wanamaker Department Store in New York City for decades. The two big names here were three-time winner Bernard Lagat, originally from Kenya but a new USA citizen, and Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele. Last year Lagat broke the 24-year old Millrose record of Eamonn Coghlan. Bekele, who holds the world records in the 5,000m and 10,000m outdoors, and the 5,000m indoors, was trying the shorter distance this year (and picking up some appearance money no doubt).

Lagat had no trouble this year, cruising in nearly 5 seconds ahead of Bekele, who needed all the speed he could muster to hang on for second--much to the relief of his loud compatriots in the stands. Lagat's 3:56.85 barely made the top 30 for the Wanamaker Mile all-time. The two took a victory lap, as most of the crowd headed for the exits.

As we were leaving they announced the Outstanding Performer of the Millrose Games. To no one's surprise it was shotputter Reese Hoffa, with his Madison Square Garden (though not Millrose Games) record.