NEW YORK - (September 24, 2011) - For almost every athlete participating in the Fifth Avenue Mile, the race serves as a celebratory conclusion to a long competitive season. For Bernard Lagat, this 31st edition also allowed the two-time Olympic medalist and 2007 double world champion to finally check off a stubbornly resistant item on his racing bucket list.
"It's been so important to me to win this race," Lagat said after finally turning the trick in his fourth time on Saturday. "I thought it must feel really good to win here, and now that I have, I have to come back to try to do it again."Lagat, 36, used his patented, and today, unmatchable, finishing sprint to pull away from defending champ Amine Laalou of Morocco over the last 100 meters to notch a decisive 1.2-second win, crossing the line in 3:50.5, equaling the 10th fastest time ever recorded in this road race. Three-time USA road mile champion David Torrence was third in 3:52.4. Of the 18 Open male finishers, 15 broke four minutes in spite of humid conditions that had been predicted to be much wetter.
"I looked at a film of 2008," he said, referring to his debut here when he finished second to Nick Willis by a tenth of a second. "I realized that when I got to 800 and saw the finish line in the distance I took off too early.
