EPIC TWO-MILE ON TAP 118 MILLROSE GAMES ON SUNDAY.
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2026 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved, used with permission
NEW YORK (Jan. 30) – Nearly two years ago, Scotland’s Josh Kerr came to the Millrose Games at the Nike Track & Field Center at the Armory in Upper Manhattan and approached the eight-minute two-mile break. The 2023 world 1500m champion posted a world indoor (short track) best time of 8:00.67, followed by Grant Fisher in an American record of 8:03.62 and Olympic 1500m champion Cole Hawker in a personal best of 8:05.70. New Zealand’s George Beamish, a sprinter, finished fourth in 8:05.73, four of the top eight times ever recorded in that race.
“Running two to four minutes behind is harder than people think,” Kerr told reporters that day. “I’m so happy to come away with not only a win, but a record.”
Those four men, all Olympic or world championship medalists, will have a reunion of sorts at Sunday’s 118th Millrose Games, where they will compete again over the two-mile. The field will be bigger this time (13 instead of 9) and stronger with 2022 1500m world champion Jake Wightman of Great Britain and reigning NCAA champion Habtom Samuel of Eritrea also competing. Expectations are high.
“I’m just excited to be up against some of the best in the world again in the two miles,” Kerr said at a news conference today. “As soon as Ray (Flynn, the meet director) told me it was two miles, I was like, OK, OK.” He continued. “You look at the field coming together and you’re like, this is an incredible opportunity to come out and show all the hard work I’ve put in. The man who wins the race this weekend is a dog. I’m looking for that title myself.”
The race was first set up last November as a rematch between Fisher and Hawker, who went head-to-head over 3000m at last year’s meeting. Fisher ran a world record time of 7:22.91, and Hawker posted an all-time No. 2 time of 7:23.14. Fisher was happy to return to the slightly longer distance (two miles is 3,219 meters), but he didn’t know when he committed to the race last fall that the field would finish so strong.
“This two-mile course, in fact most of the courses in this competition, are world class, world ultimate type courses,” Fisher told Race Results Weekly. “Maybe even better. You have 5K guys, 1500 guys, runners coming together in one race. I think that’s very rare.”
Fisher said the manner of the meeting with director Flynn, including the financial incentives, made such great competition possible.
“I think this meeting is in the middle of a lot of things,” said Fisher, who is now self-represented and no longer uses an agent. “That’s why it does so well year after year. You see athletes coming back. It’s pretty rare to see an athlete come here and not come here again. All of our incentives are kind of queuing up to come back.”
Hawker could just as easily have competed in the NYRR Wanamaker Mile, the signature event of the Millrose Games, but the two-mile fit his annual schedule better, he said. Under trainer Ben Thomas, he and training partner Cooper Thier both pointed to Sunday’s race. Last weekend, he and Thier ran a 2,000m time trial at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, with Hawker running an American record of 4:52.92 (broken by Hobbs Kessler the next day at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix of Boston) and Thier running 4:54.74.
“That’s pretty much where we train,” Hawker said when asked why he was in the two-mile Millrose instead of the Wanamaker, a race he would certainly like to win. “I build the power side first, then focus on that speed. I think it’s obvious. When I want to pick up speed, we do it, and we do it really well. This usually happens between the USA and the World Cup (in the summer). You really have to get the timing right in this sport, and that’s what my coach did right.
Hocker said he will try to break a fast mile in two weeks at the ASICS Sound Running Invitational at the JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem.
“Two weeks from this weekend I’m going to run a fast mile and try to improve my mile PR (his personal best is 3:50.35 from 2022). I haven’t really had a lot of attempts, I think, surprisingly, in my career.”
While none of the athletes offered details on their strategy today, the race is sure to be fast. Pacemaker Ben Allen was tipped to lead the way over 1600m in 3:59 (four furlongs a mile). Another world best is certainly possible, and Fisher said he is ready at a fast pace.
“As a longer distance runner, I want this race to be fast,” said Fisher, who will make his NYC Half debut in the March 15 half marathon here. He continued.
While Kerr would love to win on Sunday, he will also want to retain the world title once Sunday’s race is over, regardless of the outcome.
“That would be pretty rough, yeah,” he said when asked if he wanted to keep the fastest record. “Eight apartments were pretty fast two years ago. I mean, it’s almost an afterthought now, especially with how fast these guys ran last year (Fisher’s 7:22.91 for the 3,000m roughly translates to a 7:57 two mile).
And there will certainly be a large audience to see it. Amory co-chairman Jonathan Schindel said today that the meeting sold out about 5,000 tickets. It will also be shown live on the NBC channel.
“We sold our last ticket three weeks ago,” Schindel said. “A lot of it is thanks to the great athletes.”
