Yared Nuguse ran the second-fastest indoor mile in history and broke the American record, winning the Millrose Games Wanamaker Mile in 3 minutes, 47.38 seconds on Saturday.
Only Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha‘s world record of 3:47.01 from 2019 is faster. It’s the first time since Steve Scott in 1985 that an American man ranks in the top two on an all-time mile list (indoors or outdoors).
Nuguse, who withdrew before the Tokyo Olympic 1500m with a strained right quadriceps, smashed Bernard Lagat‘s American record of 3:49.89 from 2005.
Nuguse ran the second-fastest mile by an American in history when including indoor and outdoor times. Only Alan Webb‘s U.S. outdoor record of 3:46.91 from 2007 is faster.
MILLROSE GAMES: Full Results
Nuguse is having a resurgent indoor season, also breaking the American record in the 3000m two weeks earlier.
His previous career highlight was earning the third and last spot on the Tokyo Olympic team in the 1500m in 2021 coming off an NCAA season at Notre Dame.
Nuguse, now 23, warmed up for his Olympic debut but withdrew before the first round, knowing he couldn’t overcome the quad injury and that running could make it worse.
He went back to Notre Dame for one last season, then moved to Boulder, Colorado, to train under three-time U.S. Olympian Dathan Ritzenhein.
Coming off a hamstring injury, Nuguse placed 11th in the 2022 USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships 1500m, missing the three-man team for last year’s world championships. Yet after worlds, Nuguse ran the fastest 1500m for an American in 2022, a 3:33.26 in September.
“After I didn’t run at the Olympics and all that, I had a lot of stuff pop back up for the rest of that year, which means I didn’t really complete any of the goals I really wanted to,” he said. “Going into a pro lifestyle, I was really excited to get back out there and be the person I know I am.”
Nuguse heads into the outdoor season among a group of young male American milers looking to make the three-man world team. That also includes former Oregon teammates Cole Hocker (Olympic Trials champion) and Cooper Teare (2022 U.S. champion).
Matthew Centrowitz, the 2016 Olympic champion, is also back after missing all of 2022 due to a knee injury that required surgery. Hocker, Teare and Centrowitz were not in the Wanamaker Mile field with Nuguse, though.
Two other American records fell at the Millrose Games.
Abby Steiner won the 300m in 35.54, taking down Quanera Hayes’ record of 35.71 from 2017. Steiner’s time was the third-fastest in history behind the world record of 35.45 that is shared by Russian Irina Privalova (1993) and Bahamian Shaunae Miller-Uibo (2018).
Alicia Monson broke Karissa Schweizer‘s American indoor 3000m record by 65 hundredths in clocking 8:25.05. Monson was 13th in the Tokyo Olympic 10,000m.
The mile, 300m and 3000m are not Olympic events.
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