Cam Myers runs 3:49.81 in Seattle, the fastest mile ever in January
The 19-year-old Australian won the Washington Indoor Preview mile by five seconds, a facility record and the quickest indoor mile ever run in January.
Photograph: Cameron Myers leading the open 3000 m at the 2024 Zatopek meet in Melbourne, by Gary Zuccala, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsCameron Myers opened his indoor season on Saturday with 3:49.81 for the mile at the Washington Indoor Preview in Seattle. Samuel Prakel, a world road mile medallist, was second in 3:54.27 and Brannon Kidder third in a personal best 3:54.62, so the Australian won by about five seconds.
It is the fastest indoor mile anyone has run in January. It took down the meeting record of 3:52.61 held by Yomif Kejelcha, and it is the fastest mile ever run in the building. Myers is 19. Runner's Tribe noted that another Australian, Stewart McSweyn, owns the fastest December mile, 3:50.61 at the Penguin Mile in Tasmania in 2020, so the two quietest months on the calendar now both belong to Australians.
The rest of the meet was not slow either. Maggi Congdon ran a personal best 4:27.77 in the women's mile and 2:00.93 for 800 m. Evan Jenkins won the 3000 m in 7:51.42, two hundredths ahead of Kenya's Evans Kurui. Britain's Tyler Bilyard took the 1000 m in 2:17.96.
A 3:49 in the third week of January used to be a season's goal. For Myers it was the opener. The track in Seattle is fast; the teenager on it is faster.
Sources: Runner's Tribe; RunBlogRun; Athletics Weekly.
