The elite field for Sunday’s Minnesota Mile in downtown
Duluth is set. Among those
entered are defending champions Craig Miller (4 minutes, 1.4 seconds) and
Heather Kampf (4:36.5). They will be racing in an elite division that features a
$20,100 prize purse with the men’s and women’s winners each receiving $3,000.
Both Miller and Kampf are the 2012 USA 1 Mile Road national
champions.
Miller – also
the Minnesota Mile champion in 2011 (4:03.8) – was the 2013 USA Indoor Mile
runner-up (3:58.90 - March 3, Albuquerque) and won the 2013 Big River Festival
of Miles (3:59.23 – May 30, St. Louis).
Also in the
men’s field is former University of Minnesota standout and Stillwater, Minn.
native Ben Blankenship, who won of a pair of mile races last month (3:56.27,
Falmouth Mile – Falmouth, Mass./4:06, Michigan Mile – Flint, Mich.). Two-time
1500-meter Olympian (Canada, 2008 and 2012) Nate Brannen will make his first
appearance at the Minnesota Mile.
Kampf has won
numerous mile races in 2013, including the Bermuda Mile, the Ryan Shay Mile, the
Liberty Mile and the Michigan Mile. She’ll be joined in the women’s division by
Team USA Minnesota teammates Gabriele Anderson and Jamie Cheever. Anderson has
placed in the top five at the past three Minnesota Mile races, including a
second-place finish a year ago (4:37.5). Cheever was sixth in 2012 (4:44.1). All
three ran collegiately at the University of Minnesota.
Making her
debut at the mile distance is Kenya’s Sarah Kiptoo, who won the 2013 Grandma’s
Marathon on June 22 in a course record time of 2 hours, 26 minutes, 32
seconds.
The races
begin one block east of Fitger’s on Superior Street and finish past the Holiday
Center. In addition to the elite race, the event includes races for children,
recreational and semi-elite runners.
The Minnesota
Mile is the 14th stop on the nationwide inaugural Bring Back the Mile
Tour 2013. For more on the Bring Back the Mile Tour, visit www.bringbackthemile.com.
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