honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 1:39 a.m., Saturday, July 26, 2008

Track: Lagat beaten in Olympic tuneup at London

By ROB HARRIS
Associated Press Writer

LONDON — Bernard Lagat lost for the first time in 10 races this season, finishing third Friday in the mile at the London Grand Prix in his final competition before the Beijing Olympics.

If the American captures the 1,500 and 3,000-meter titles next month in Beijing, however, the third-placed finish over a mile at the London Grand Prix will be a distant memory.

"I'm going to cry when I leave you guys," the double world champion joked with reporters at Crystal Palace. "I'm not going to beat myself too much about it, I'm just going to concentrate on feeling better.

"Mentally I'm really ready for any challenge. I'm going to make sure I don't lose again because if I lose the next one it means I lose gold."

Lagat's challenge Friday night came too late on the final stretch to surge past Shedrack Korir and Andrew Baddeley. He finished in 3 minutes, 55.20 seconds.

"I'm not mad, but I know I finished strong, really kicked the last 150 hoping to get the guys," he said. "I was looking at the end and it was getting closer and closer, but it was too late. I'm pleased with the rest of it.

"I know that I have a lot of work to do."

That will be undertaken at his European training base in the forests surrounding Tubingen, Germany, before flying to the U.S. camp in China.

The 33-year-old Lagat has reduced his workload after being troubled by physical stress on his body last season.

The Kenyan — who attended Washington State University but won two Olympic medals for his birth country — quietly became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2004 before the Athens Olympics, where he still competed for the African nation.

He won silver in Athens in the 1,500 after a third-placed finish at the 2000 Sydney Games.

"It would have given me even more confidence to have gone to Beijing unbeaten," said Lagat, who was the only athlete to win two titles at the U.S. Olympic trials. "There is always pressure and a lot of expectation on myself. Ever since college I do well under pressure, so it doesn't crush me because I try to control the pressure. It's how you deal with it mentally."

Much is expected of him in Beijing.

"Everybody expects me to be the best," he said. "Even though I lost today, people will still be saying that Lagat won last year and he's the one to watch, he's the best, he's going to be the one winning.

"But that doesn't bother me. I'm just going to go out there and concentrate on what I know best, winning the race."