After a 2008 marred by a frustrating Beijing Olympics, double world champion Bernard Lagat is aiming to get this season off to a record-equalling start at the 102nd Millrose Games on Friday. Kenyan-born Lagat will tie Irish middle distance great Eamonn Coghlan with seven victories if he wins the indoor meeting's highlight, the Wanamaker Mile. “It's a privilege to have a chance to match this great record,” the 34-year-old American said Wednesday at a news conference, where he was joined by Coughlan. “I've had so many successful and meaningful moments in New York, making the opportunity to win a seventh Wanamaker extremely special to me.” The 56-year-old Coghlan, the former indoor mile world-record holder nicknamed “the Chairman of the Boards” for winning on a wooden Millrose track, last won the Wanamaker 22 years ago. “For our sport to have a great person like Bernard and all he has accomplished with the chance to tie my mark is tremendous,” Coghlan said. “It's always emotional for me returning to New York because I can never forget the emotion and the will of the audience helping me win here.” Lagat, a silver medalist in the 1,500 meters at the 2004 Athens Olympics, won the 1,500 and 5,000 meters at the 2007 world championships. A left Achilles' tendon injury hampered his training before last August's Olympics, where he failed to qualify for the final in the 1,500 and finished ninth in the 5,000. The Wanamaker field also includes New Zealand's Nick Willis, a bronze medalist in the 1,500 at Beijing. Willis was third to Lagat and Craig Mottram of Australia in last year's Wanamaker Mile at Madison Square Garden. Olympic champion Steve Hooker of Australia and women's runner-up Jenn Stuczynski headline the pole vault fields with three of the world's top five throwers - Christian Cantwell, Reese Hoffa and Adam Nelson - meeting in the men's shot put. Olympic 200 meters silver medalist Shawn Crawford leads the men's 60 meters field with 2006 world indoor champion Lisa Barber the top entry in the women's 60. The women's 60 meters hurdles features Olympic silver medalist Sally McLellan of Australia and bronze medalist Priscilla Lopes-Schliep of Canada. Bolt is ‘mind-blowing' Jamaican Usain Bolt's record-breaking days have only just begun, former 100 meters world record holder and Olympic champion Maurice Greene predicted on Wednesday. “If he learns just a little bit (about sprinting), there is no telling what that boy can do,” Greene, now retired, told Reuters in an interview. “He's mind-blowing.” Bolt, 22, lowered the 100m world record to 9.69 seconds and the 200m mark to 19.30 seconds in stunning runs at last August's Beijing Olympics. He also helped Jamaica claim the world 4x100m relay record. “I don't know what to think about him,” said Greene, who won the Olympic 100m gold at the 2000 Sydney Games. “He's doing things that no one in history has ever done. He's a great talent.”
