US hurdler looking for first victory at Millrose Games

January 31, 2008 - New York City

World Express Athletic Mgmt will be sending US hurdle talent Joel Brown to NYC for the 101st Millrose Games at famed Madison Square Garden. This will be Brown’s third time running at one of the oldest indoor track meets in the world and he is looking for a victory to go with his birthday celebration. For the past three years Brown has traveled to NYC and celebrated his birthday (Jan. 31st) but not a victory.

The Millrose Games is the 2nd stop on the Visa Series Indoor meets in the US. It will be televised live on ESPN2 on Friday, February 1st starting at 7:00pm – 8:00pm. The meet will then be rebroadcast on NBC Saturday February 2nd at 2:30 – 3:30pm. Please check your local listings for times in your area.

In 2007, Brown placed 2nd at the Millrose Games and went on to place 2nd at all the USA indoor meetings (Boston Indoor Games & Tyson Invite) that year posting a career best of :7.58 for 60m hurdles. The 2005 US Indoor hurdle champ only finished 5th at the US indoor championships in 2007 but looked forward to the outdoor season with a new indoor PR. Unfortunately Brown was slowed by a minor nagging injury. Not making his second US World Championship team was a major disappointment. But Brown now has his sights set on June and making his first US Olympic team. A change in coaching, training facilities and training partners is what Brown hopes will return him to the form he enjoyed in 2005 when he finished 6th at the World Outdoor Championships, 6th at the IAAF Final and was ranked 6th in the world by T&F News.

The field at the Millrose Games for the men’s hurdles will not be easy but Brown welcomes the challenge. He knows that battles such as these will help his preparations for the ultimate battle at the US Olympic Trials in June against the world’s best hurdlers. The USA is the only country that boasts 7 of the top 10 sprint hurdlers in the world. No other country has a stable of talent in one event other than the Africans in the distance events. The field includes three US hurdlers who ran under :13.20 last summer:

World Express will also send Trinidad & Tobago’s 800 meter national record (1:45.53) holder Sherridan Kirk to the Millrose Games to serve as a pace maker. Kirk who won the men’s 800m event at Millrose last year is looking to sharpen up for a run at a world indoor title.

2007 was shaping up for Kirk as a great year until injury struck at the Prefontaine Classic. Before then, Kirk was undefeated both indoors and outdoors winning three indoors races with a season best of 1:48.89 and then outdoors winning 4 races with an average time of 1:46.30. The world-class field for the Wanamaker Mile will include the USA’s Bernard Lagat who won both the 1500m and 5,000m events at this past summer’s World Outdoor T&F Championships in Osaka Japan.

The next stop on the Visa Series indoor meets will be the Tyson Invitational on February 15^th in Fayetteville Arkansas. Scheduled to compete for World Express will be Univ. of Arkansas All-American middle distance ace Said Ahmed (men’s 1 mile) and Joel Brown.

Joel Brown & Dexter Faulk will run 60m hurdles, Ahmed drops down to 800 meters

Boston, Mass. - Jan. 24, 2008

World Express Athletic Mgmt. will have three of its track & field athletes compete at this weekend’s Reebok Boston Indoor Games set for Saturday at the Reggie Lewis Center. USA’s Joel Brown and Dexter Faulk will both compete in the men’s 60m hurdles while Boston native Said Ahmed returns home to compete in the 800 meter run.

The Boston Indoor Games is part of the USA’s Visa Championships Series and will be televised taped delay on Sunday, January 27th on ESPN2 at 3:00pm. Click on www.usatf.org for more information about the Visa Championship Series.

Brown and Faulk will be opening their professional indoor track seasons against a solid field that included the USA’s Aries Merritt. Two weeks ago, Faulk posted a :7.65 performance at a college meet in Fayetteville Arkansas while Brown dominated his college foes last weekend in his home state of Maryland posting a :7.75 win. Last year in Boston, Brown placed 2nd with a season’s best of :7.58. Dexter Faulk has recently come into his own at only 21 years old posting a career best of :13.34 last year outdoors and :7.58 indoors. He will be looking for the upset over Brown and Merritt.

Said Ahmed returns home to compete in front of a home crowd but faces an great early season test against two of the USA’s best half-milers. Ahmed is a 9-time NCAA All-American and three-time SEC Champion while at the University of Arkansas and recorded some of the fastest 800-meter times in Massachusetts history while starring at Boston English High School. Competing in the men’s 800 meters against Ahmed will be US Champion Khadevis Robinson and Oregon native Nick Symmonds. On Monday in Fresno Ca., Ahmed ran a 4:05 mile on the small 140yd track as part of the first Visa Series Indoor Meet (Run for the Dream - USA vs World).

The Boston Indoor Games has quickly become the best indoor meeting in the US with several World and American Records being set along with world-class competition. Also set to compete are T&F stars Craig Mottram of Austrialia and Meseret Defar of Ethiopia.

The next stop on the Visa Championship Series will be the prestigous Millrose Games held in New York City at Madison Square Garden on Friday, Feb. 1st. Last year’s runner-up in the hurdles, Joel Brown will return to NYC looking for a victory.

For more information regarding Joel Brown, Dexter Faulk, Said Ahmed and other World Express Athletic Management athletes, please visit our web site at http://www.worldexpressmgmt.com

Mark A. Pryor
World Express Athletic Mgmt.

by: Tartan APS
January 16, 2008

FRESNO, Calif. - Fresno State and USA Track & Field have released the names of the professional athletes slated to compete at the Run for the Dream’s USA vs. the World Meet on Jan. 21, 2008.

The teams, which include Olympians, national champions, and record-holding athletes, represent 13 countries. Athletes will compete in seven individual events each for men and women, plus the 4×400m relay. Each competitor will participate in only one individual event, but may participate on the relay team. Run for the Dream is the first event of the 2008 Indoor Visa Championship Series and the first team-scored meet in the series’ history.

On the women’s side, former Bulldog Angela Daigle, along with Carmelita Jeter, will represent the USA against the World’s Shandria Brown of the Bahamas and Natasha Myers in the 55m dash. In the 55m hurdles, Americans Candace Davis and Damu Cherry will race against Jamaica’s Vonette Dixon and Canada’s Priscilla Lopes. LaShinda Demus and Jessica Cousins of the USA will race against Jamaicans Carlene Robinson and Ysanne Williams. Sherron Rhetta and Kim Gildersleeve will represent USA against Greada’s Neisha Bernard-Thomas and Great Britain’s Roseline Abroke in the 800m run.

Americans Jillian Schwartz and Nikole McEwen will take on pole vaulters Ikuko Nishikori of Japan and Dana Ellis-Buller of Canada. Jenny Adams and Tameshia King representing USA will attempt to leap past long jumper Saeko Okayama of Japan and Elva Goulbourne of Jamaica. The high jump will feature Americans Sharon Day and Amy Acuff against Mireya Beltran of Mexico and Gaelle Niare of France.

Racing in the 55m dash will be Josh Norman and Dwight Phillips of the USA against Jamaica’s Lerone Clark and Nigeria’s Adetoyi Duotoye. The 55m hurdles will pit USA’s Allen Johnson and Aubrey Herring against Charles Allen of Canada and Decosma Wright of Jamaica. Bershawn Jackson and Khadevis Robsinon will represent the Americans in the 600 yard-dash, while Sherridan Kirk and Michael Blackwood, both of Jamaica, will run for the World. The mile race will be a North American battle as Americans Said Ahmed and Michael Stember take on Mexico’s Mario Macias and Canada’s Ryan McKenzie.
Giovanni Lanaro of Mexico and Taquro Mori of Japan will battle against Americans Russ Buller and Tommy Skipper. Tony Allmond and John Moffit will leap for USA in the long jump against Haiti’s Narc Narcisse and Bermuda’s Tyrone Smith.

American shot putters Reese Joffa and Dan Taylor will face Om Prakash of India and Dorian Scott of Jamaica. Both the men’s and women’s 4×400m relay teams are currently under consideration.
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Athletes competing in the Run for the Dream will be the first to race on the new custom-designed TARTAN® indoor track being assembled Sunday for the meet on Monday, Jan. 21, 2008.

World Express Athletic Management Athletes competing:

Jessica Cousins, Sherridan Kirk, Said Ahmed, Mario Macias (see bold above)

http://www.worldexpressmgmt.com