News

Feb. 20, 2010 - Aviva Grand Prix, Birmingham, UK

Hilary runs indoor mile pb, ranks 10th in world

With packed stands, a fast track and a world-class field, saturday night was a record-breaking one in which many world-best times were set in Birmingham.

Known as one of the premier competitions of the indoor season, this year's Birmingham Grand Prix is special in that it is one of the last big meetings before the world indoor championships in three weeks. Thus, many athletes are in top form and showed this last night with X world best performances.

The women's mile was on par as every single women in the field acheived some sort of record, whether the standium record or personal best. Ethiopia's world number one for 1500m this indoor season, Gelete Burka, announced before the race she came for a world record of 4:17, thus commanding a fast pace that pulled the rest of the field along. Burka was the victor, but did not achieve her goal, running 4:23.53.

Stellingwerff took advantage of this fast paced race by getting pulled along to run a personal best time of 4:30.89, good for 8th place among a stellar field of women who are all ranked in the top-15 in the world for 1500m. As well, this time puts Hilary 10th on the world list for the indoor mile this season and X on the 1500m world list.

Unfortunately, Hilary missed Canada's world indoor standard by meer 10ths of a second, but says she's satisfied to end her indoor season now and look ahead to the summer.

"I'm actually not too disappointed not to be going to world indoors because the main goal is to have a great summer and ultimately be ready to content at the Commonwealth Games this October. It's going to be a long summer and I want to be at my best when it counts. I'm really happy with what I've achieved in training and racing this winter and I'm confident I'm on my way to a summer of pbs," said Hilary.

See full results of the Birmingham Grand Prix here.

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