When the 99th Millrose Games go off tonight as one of the best meets in years, the women’s 60-meter dash and the men’s shot-put will be center stage as Olympic-caliber fields. But it’s the fabled Wanamaker Mile – back to its traditional place as the finale – that will be in the spotlight.
In Ethiopian world record-holder Kenenisa Bekele, U.S. mile record-holder Bernard Lagat and Portugal star Rui Silva, the Wanamaker will have three Olympic medalists for the first time. Three-time champ Lagat will try to defend his crown against Bekele, the best distance runner in the world.
“I respect him. He hasn’t been in track long like I have and he’s achieved so much that I haven’t,” Lagat said of mile debutante Bekele. “The man is a 10,000-runner and he’s going to be playing in our field. We want to make sure he has a tough time. I don’t think anything is impossible for Bekele; he can do anything. We have to make sure if he wins, it’s going to be tough.”
Lagat, a new father, will need to be both rested and savvy against the 23-year-old Bekele, who already has eight World Cross Country titles and world records at 10,000 meters outdoor and 5,000, both indoor and outdoor.
Two-time champ Laban Rotich of Kenya and Iona’s Richard Kiplagat – who ran a then-world-leading 3:57 two weeks ago – are also in the loaded field. Still, it isn’t as daunting a field as the shot or the women’s dash, one of the toughest fields in Garden history.
World 100-meter champ Lauryn Williams is the headliner; she’ll face U.S. 100 champ Lisa Barber of Montclair, N.J., who beat her in Boston and comes in wearing the gold bib of the overall Visa Championship Series leader. Olympic 200-meter champ Veronica Campbell, two-time world indoor silver medalist Angela Williams, and 2004 Visa champ Angela Daigle-Bowen will also run.
“This is like the Olympics indoors. It’s a great field,” said Williams, who predicted a meet-record of seven seconds would be needed to win the 60.
The shot features the top four men in the world. Men’s Visa leader Reese Hoffa is the defending champ and coming off a world-leading 69-1 1/5 last week in Boston. He’ll vie with world outdoor champ Adam Nelson, three-time world outdoor gold medalist John Godina and 2004 world indoor champ Christian Cantwell.
Conspicuously absent from the mile is Alan Webb, who is in New York and confirmed to The Post that he’ll face Abdi Abdirahman in the 12K race at the U.S. Cross Country Championship in Van Cortlandt Park Feb. 18-19.
brian.lewis@nypost.com
