By David Monti, @d9monti.bsky.social | (c) 2025 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved; used with permission
NEW YORK (08-Feb) — Americans Grant Fisher and Yared Nuguse set world indoor records in the 3000m and mile, respectively, at a spectacular 117th edition of the Millrose Games at the Nike Track & Field Center at The Armory. The capacity crowd roared when Fisher out-sprinted reigning Olympic 1500m gold medalist Cole Hocker, 7:22.91 to 7:23.14, and Nuguse held off his Olympic teammate Hobbs Kessler, 3:46.63 to 3:46.90.
Neither record was expected. Fisher was hoping for a robust head-to-head race with Hocker –an athlete he rarely faces as a 5000m/10,000m athlete– and Nuguse was primarily focused on trying to win his third straight NYRR Wanamaker Mile, expecting to face 2023 world 1500m champion Josh Kerr of Great Britain. But the early pace in the 3000m was fast enough for a world record race, and Kerr never left the race hotel because of a sudden illness.
“The race tactic was going to be the same,” Nuguse told reporters. “I’m going to go to the front and grind no matter what anyone else does. It was sad not to see him (Kerr) in the race I will say, but these things happen.”
WATCH: Yared Nuguse Breaks World Record in the Wanamaker Mile
Pacemaker Abe Alvarado did a great job getting the race out fast, and the pack of 11 contenders soon strung out. Nuguse followed Alvarado closely with Kessler, Germany’s Robert Farken, and France’s Azzedine Habz keeping pace. With two laps to go the running order was the same, but going into the final lap Farken got dropped (he would finish eighth in 3:49.93). Nuguse looked tired, but would not let up.
“You don’t let up, keep grinding,” Nuguse said of his final lap. “If I let up anywhere they were going to pass me and take the win for themselves. So, I was like, don’t let up, not for a second, after the pacemaker falls off. Just keep going.”
Kessler could not match Nuguse’s top speed and had to settle for second. Interestingly, Kessler remains the second-fastest American of all time indoors, despite lowering his personal best by nearly two seconds. Third place went to Australian 18 year-old star Cam Myers who broke his own world U20 record set at the Armory last month. Myers’s 3:47.48 tonight also set an Australian open record. Habz set a French record in fourth place (3:47.56), while the University of Virginia’s Gary Martin chopped nearly six seconds off of his personal best in fifth place (3:48.82). Martin is now the second fastest NCAA athlete of all time.
Three-time Olympian Dathan Ritzenhein, Nuguse’s coach at the On Athletics Club in Boulder, Colo., was thrilled with his athlete’s performance, but not surprised.
“It’s hard to start the year like this,” Ritzenhein said. “I mean Yared, what a tough guy. Right from the gun. He was so geared up for the race with Josh and, a couple of hours before we were like, we have to refocus a bit. Yared is unfazed, you know? Always unfazed.”
Down the finish order, Ireland’s Andrew Coscoran ran 3:49.26 in seventh place, toppling Eamonn Coghlan’s Irish indoor record of 3:49.78 set back in 1983.
In the 3000m Fisher and Hocker, who both represent Nike, had the benefit of strong pacemaking from Americans Jack Salisbury and Casey Comber. The pacers hit the first 1000m in 2:28.9, passed through the mile in about 3:58, and that allowed Fisher, Hocker and Australia’s Ky Robinson to reach 2000m in 4:58.1. Everyone else was out of contention by that point.
“I didn’t think we’d go out that quick,” Fisher told reporters. “I thought we might be able to challenge the American record (7:28.23). I thought I was in shape for that. Clearly Cole thought he was in pretty good shape, too.”
With three laps to go, Hocker moved into the lead. Fisher was surprised, but felt the race was going his way.
WATCH: World Record! Grant Fisher, Cole Hocker Duel to the Wire in Millrose 3000m
“I was happy he took the lead that far out,” Fisher said. “I think if he had waited a little longer he might have been able to get a jump on me. His acceleration’s just really good. Sometimes it takes me a little bit to get moving.”
Hocker was still in front at the bell. With about 150 meters left, Fisher tried to move past Hocker, but couldn’t. He knew that he would have just one more chance in the homestretch.
“I tried to go past him on the backstretch of that last lap, but he held me off,” Fisher explained. “I tucked back in and gave everything with about 50 meters to go. I wanted the move to work, but it’s Cole Hocker. A lot of people would say he has the best kick in the world.”
But not tonight. Fisher passed Hocker in the homestretch to get the win and the world record. Hocker, who also finished under the previous record of 7:23.81 by Ethiopia’s Lamecha Girma from 2023, was equal parts proud and disappointed when he discussed the race with reporters.
“I think you can tell right now how much I hate losing,” said Hocker, who paused to regain his composure before continuing. “I’m really proud of how I ran that. It was just a hard effort. That’s the risk you run when you give it your all.”
Like in the mile, the results were impressive right down the finish order. Jimmy Gressier of France (7:30.18) and Robinson of Australia (7:30.38) set national records in third and fourth place, respectively. Dylan Jacobs, a teammate of Nuguse’s at the On Athletics Club, ran an excellent personal best of 7:30.45 in fifth, and Hocker’s training partner Cooper Teare also scored a PB in sixth in 7:30.62.
Josh Hoey gave fans yet another American record this afternoon when he held off reigning world indoor champion and adidas teammate Bryce Hoppel in the men’s 800m, 1:43.90 to 1:44.19. Hoey’s time was also a world leader, and both Hoey and Hoppel broke Donavan Brazier’s previous national record of 1:44.21 from 2021.
“I thought it would be at least 1:44-low for the winner, so my plan going in was to try to front-run as much as I can and just put faith in the training we’ve done,” Hoey said. “I executed that race plan.”
Another important record was set back in sixth place by high schooler Cooper Lutkenhaus. The 16 year-old from Justin, Texas, ran a personal best 1:46.86, taking down Hoey’s USA high school record of 1:47.67 set in 2018.
Also on the men’s side, Will Sumner led from gun to tape in the 600m, clocking a world-leading 1:14.04 which was also a meet record. Sumner missed nearly all of 2024 with an Achilles injury. Olympian Isaiah Jewett swept past Brandon Miller in the final three meters to take second in 1:14.17 to Miller’s 1:14.37.
“That’s what I wanted to do,” said Sumner when asked by a reporter why he led the entire race. “I didn’t really know what other people were going to do, if Isaiah would take it, or Quincy (Wilson) would take it, if Brandon would take it. I didn’t want to leave it to chance, so I just wanted to make sure I left everything out there.”
The women’s distance events were more tactical, while still producing solid times. In the 3000m an explosive move by Josette Andrews with two laps to go broke the race open, but Andrews was rolled-up a lap later by Olympian Whittni Morgan who got the win in a personal best 8:28.03 to Andrews’s 8:29.77 (also a PB). Sarah Healy of Ireland set a national record in third, clocking 8:30.79, edging Australian Olympic silver medalist Jessica Hull by .12 seconds.
“That was racing, you know?” Morgan told Race Results Weekly. “She took it and that takes so much, like, courage to take it with two laps (to go) because there’s always a chance somebody will have a little more momentum at the end.” She added: “Honestly, just hats off to her. That’s a scary place to be, but she did incredible and she made the race at the end.”
Andrews said that she and coach Dathan Ritzenhein had initially planned back in October to skip the indoor season, but decided to come to Millrose because her fall and winter training had gone so well.
“This build-up has been pretty great,” Andrews told Race Results Weekly. “We decided that we were just going to take the fall slow and skip indoors, but if training had gone well the one race we would do is Millrose, but a 3K.” She continued: “I knew I was ready to go.”
Olympic 1500m bronze medalist Georgia Bell won the women’s Wanamaker Mile in a three-way sprint against American Olympians Heather MacLean and Nikki Hiltz. Bell ran 4:23.35, a personal best, to MacLean’s 4:23.41 and Hiltz’s 4:23.50. Kenya Olympian Susan Ejore was close behind in fourth in 4:23.64.
“You don’t really know how close it is until you cross the line,” said Bell, who had never raced at the Armory before. “The people are coming right behind you, so I looked up at the end and saw how close it was. I think that’s what makes racing fun, when you can’t call it when the race starts. It’s fun to be part of those races.”
Back in 11th place, high schooler Sadie Engelhardt of Ventura, Calif., broke Mary Cain’s national high school record, clocking 4:27.97. Cain’s mark of 4:28.25 was set at the Millrose Games back in 2013. Engelhardt’s 1500m en route time of 4:09.84 smashed the national high school record she set at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix only last Sunday by nearly two seconds.
In the other distance events, Shafiqua Maloney of St. Vincent and the Grenadines won the women’s 800m in a world-leading 1:59.07; Tommy Latham of Atlanta won the boys high school mile in a meet record 4:00.94; and Dylan McElhinney of New York City women the girls high school mile 4:42.82.
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The Millrose Games is one of just two Gold Level meetings in the United States on the 2025 World Athletics Indoor Tour. Next year’s meet will be earlier, on February 1, so as not to conflict with the Winter Olympics.
