NEW YORK – Olympian Tim Seaman and Farmington native Adam Staier were among eight walkers who competed in the USATF National Men’s One-Mile Racewalk Championship during the 98th Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden on Friday .
The Millrose track is an 11-lap-to-the-mile, highly banked wooden track. It is difficult to racewalk on because athletes typically do not have sufficient speed to take advantage of the layout that a banked track gives runners. As expected, Seaman took off like a rocket and never looked back, finishing the mile with a record time of 6:00.76 (the old record was 6:13.4).
Second and third place were hotly contested by veteran walker Dave McGovern and national junior champion Zachary Pollinger. Pollinger prevailed, walking a 6:20.48 to McGovern’s 6:26.88. Staier, a University of Maine at Farmington junior coming off a prolonged medical hiatus, captured sixth place with a time of 6:54.93.
Staier is currently training for the 20K and plans to be back in championship form within a year. But his sixth-place finish earned him a championship medal in the first open national one-mile racewalk championship since 1973.
Comments are no longer available on this story