Lagat Is Now More Confident by a Mile

The seemingly effortless, flowing stride was the same.

So was the incredibly relaxed look on his face while running at a pace that makes most runners grimace in pain.

Yet it was a different Bernard Lagat of Kenya who won his third consecutive mile title before an announced crowd of 6,020 in the L.A. Invitational indoor track and field meet at the Sports Arena on Saturday night.

It was a Lagat who figures he has a chance at winning the gold medal in the 1,500 meters in the world championships in Edmonton, Canada, in August.

It was a Lagat who views himself as an equal with countryman Noah Ngeny and Moroccan superstar Hicham El Guerrouj because he finished third to those two in a close race in the Olympic Games in Sydney last September.

Lagat, 26, had run 3:30.56 in the 1,500 and ranked third in the world in 1999, but he never felt he had a chance at defeating Ngeny or El Guerrouj in Sydney.

“Last year I was an Olympian,” he said. “But I was so scared running against those guys. But after last year, my confidence is so much higher. I feel like I can be right there at the world championships.”

Lagat’s winning time of 3:57.61 on Saturday night wasn’t as fast as he would have liked, but it was quicker than his 4:01.03 clocking in 1999 and his 3:59.60 last year.

“My main goal was to run faster than last year,” he said. “I was a little concerned with the pace. I wanted to come through the 880 in 1:55 and after a [59-second] first quarter, we were a bit shaky.”

Clyde Colenso of South Africa, the designated rabbit, led the field through the first 440 in 59.9 and the 800 in 1:58.7.

Lagat and U.S. Olympian Jason Pyrah were second and third at that point and Lagat moved into the lead with three laps left on the 160-yard track.

“Jason is a great runner,” Lagat said. “And he is very strong on the last lap. So I didn’t want to have to outkick him.”

Pyrah, who finished 10th in the Olympics, had hoped to take the lead with three laps left, but when Lagat beat him to the punch, he waited until the last lap to make his move.

“My coach will probably kill me for that, but we were moving pretty fast,” Pyrah said. “I waited until the last lap, but Bernard wouldn’t let me by.”

Pyrah finished second in 3:58.20 and Jonathon Riley of Stanford third in 4:04.30 after taking a spill into the pole vault pit after colliding with a lapped runner with 200 yards to go.

Ryan Hall of Big Bear High placed fourth in 4:09.46 to crush his previous indoor best of 4:18.1 set in the San Diego Games last year.

Angel Perkins of Cerritos Gahr, the other local high school athlete to compete in the open division of the meet, won the women’s 500-yard run in 1:06.74 while leading from start to finish.

Johnny Gray, Michael Stember, LaVar Anderson, Russ Buller, Angela Williams and Jeff Laynes turned in other notable efforts.

Gray, 41, who retired for several months last year after failing to make his fifth Olympic team in the 800 meters, won the 600-yard run in 1:12.21 after leading every step of the way.

Stember, third in the 1,500 in the Olympic trials at Cal State Sacramento last July, used a strategy similar to Gray’s to win the 880-yard run in 1:49.60.

Anderson, the fourth-ranked men’s triple jumper in the U.S. in 1999 and 2000, won that event with a leap of 54-1 3/4.

The mark was the best in the world this year, but it should be noted that the indoor season is just beginning.

Buller, the NCAA pole vault champion for Louisiana State last year, won that event at 18-0 1/2.

Williams, running her first indoor race since tying the national high school record of 6.32 in the girls’ 50-meter dash in the 1998 L.A. Invitational, won the women’s 50 in 6.17.

The two-time defending NCAA champion in the 100 lacked her usual rocket start because two of the spikes on the outside of her right shoe fell out after coming unscrewed while she was warming up just before the race. But she accelerated well and defeated second-place Lakeisha Backus by .05 seconds.

“I could feel it during the race,” Williams said of the missing spikes. “Because I couldn’t really push off on the outside of my foot.”

Laynes won the men’s 50 in 5.64 to move to eighth on the all-time U.S. list in that event.