ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Jennifer Suhr overcame an aching left Achilles to win the pole vault Saturday in the USA Indoor Track & Field Championships for the sixth time.
Suhr cleared 15-feet, 334-inches on her first attempt and only her second height after passing on most of the other levels to relieve the strain on her Achilles. She tried to break her own American indoor record at 1634 but came up short.
Bernard Lagat won his third consecutive 3,000-meter indoor championship, using a big kick over the last half lap to finish in 7 minutes, 47.54 seconds.
Jennifer Simpson won her second straight women’s 3,000-meter title in 9:19.15 and will try to repeat in both long events with the 1,500 on Sunday.
Also Saturday, Dexter Faulk won the preliminaries in the 60-meter hurdles in 7.40 seconds, the top American time this year. Justin Gatlin’s 6.51 in winning the 60-dash preliminaries also is the best American time of the year.
