Scottish runners Jemma Reekie and Jake Wightman win 5th Avenue Mile

Athletes took to the streets of New York City on Sunday morning for the 5th Avenue Mile, one of the final races of the summer racing season.

It was the two Scottish runners who took the win, with Jemma Reekie taking the women’s race in 4:21.6 and Jake Wightman winning the men’s race in 3:49.6.

The women’s race

Alicia Monson took the lead early in the women’s race, gapping the field by several metres in the first half. The pack eventually reeled her in, and with one minute to go, Reekie, Hiltz and Van Buskirk began making a push for the finish.

With only a few metres left in the race, Reekie took over the lead, and after finishing 4th in Tokyo and 4th in the Diamond League final, she finally got her win. Hiltz finished in second place in 4:23.0 and Shannon Osika came third in 4:23.3. After making a strong push for a podium spot, Van Buskirk crossed the line in fourth in 4:23.9. Monson ended up in sixth in 4:25.4. Canada’s Julie-Anne Staehli finished in 11th in 4:29.1.

The men’s race

Wightman was the winner in a hotly-contested men’s race, where there was plenty of jostling for the lead over the 20-block race. Australia’s Oliver Hoare led in the early stages, but the rest of the pack were right on his heels. At about the 800m mark, Matthew Centrowitz made an aggressive move and created a sizeable gap on the field, but was unable to hold onto the lead.

Wightman cranked the pace up in the final meters of the race to take the win, followed by Hoare and Jake Heyward, also from the U.K., both in 3:50.4. Canada’s Charles Philibert-Thiboutot finished ninth in 3:53.2, and Centrowitz ended up in 14th in 3:56.4.

posted Monday September 13th
by Brittany Hambleton