By Peter Lagiovane
NEW YORK CITY, N.Y. - Is it the luck of the Irish or the talent of the Irish that in the last 23 years runners from Ireland have won the Wanamaker Mile, the signature event of the Millrose Games, 15 times and been second ten times? It is perhaps a mixture of both. Mark Carroll is the most recent son of the Emerald Isle to uphold this recent string of Irish success begun by Eamonn Coghlan in 1977. (Irishman Ron Delany won four straight Wanamaker Miles from 1956-1959). The Irish record holder in the 3000m (outdoors) and 5000m(indoors and outdoors), Carroll ended a three-year drought for the Irish by winning last year's Wanamaker Mile over countryman James Nolan.
Mark Carroll Winning 2000 Wanamaker Mile
photo by T. Patrick O'Dowd
A three-time Millrose Games 3000m champion, Carroll competed in his first Wanamaker Mile in 2000. The victory was part of a watershed year for Carroll. In 2000 Carroll posted victories in the Manchester Road Race, the European Indoor 3000m, Athens 3000m and ran an indoor personal best of 3:54.98 to win the New Balance Mile.
Carroll, a Providence College graduate who still trains in Providence, RI, considers himself fortunate to have been coached early in his career by Irish coaching legends Der O'Donovan and Brother John Dooley. He is now coached by Jim Harvey. Carroll's agent is Ray Flynn, a former Millrose Games competitor who twice finished second to Eamonn Coghlan in the Wanamaker Mile (1981, 85).
Carroll will face a strong field as he tries to become the first repeat winner of the Wanamaker Mile since Marcus O'Sullivan won three in a row from1988-1990. Scheduled to compete are Kenyans Laban Rotich, who won the Wanamaker Mile in 1998, and Bernard Lagat, the Olympic bronze medalist in the 1500-meters, as well as other Olympic 1500m finalists Kevin Sullivan (Canada-5th), Daniel Zegeye (Ethiopia-6th), and American Jason Pyrah(10th). Also entered are James Nolan, last year's runnerup, and Americans Gabe Jennings, the Stanford All-American who won the 1500-meters at the U.S. Olympic Trials, and Seneca Lassiter, who finished 4th in the Wanamaker Mile in 1998 and 2000. The last American to win the Wanamaker Mile was Steve Scott in 1984.
The Wanamaker Mile is named for the late Rodman Wanamaker founder of the Millrose Athletic Association and the Millrose Games. The year 2001 marks the 76th running of the Wanamaker mile. In the 75 years of the Wanamaker Mile there have been thirteen multiple winners led by Eamonn Coghlan with seven, Glenn Cunningham with six and Marcus O'Sullivan with five. Since Tony Waldrop ran the first sub-four minute Wanamaker Mile in 1974, there have been 80 sub-four minute performances by 38 Wanamaker Milers led by O'Sullivan with eleven. The Wanamaker Mile is held at 10 p.m. continuing a tradition begun in the 1930s by the famous sports announcer Ted Husing who had a radio show on CBS at that time and would broadcast the race live.
Peter Lagiovane is the Millrose Games contact for Octagon, the sports marketing company managing the Millrose Games.