EUGENE — Looking at the entry list for tomorrow’s Bowerman Mile at the 50th Prefontaine Classic here at Hayward Field, Grant Fisher’s name sticks out. The double Olympic bronze medalist in the 5000m and 10,000m from Paris last August has the slowest –and likely the oldest– personal best in the field: 3:59.38. He ran that time ten years ago when he was a senior at Grand Blanc High School in Michigan. At the time he became the seventh American to break four minutes for the mile while in high school.
“You look at the start list and you see a 3:59 in there and it’s like, how’d that guy get in to it?” Fisher joked at a press conference today.
In fairness Fisher has run some fast 1500m races, including a 3:33.99 this past indoor season (the World Athletics scoring table equates that performance to a 3:51.46 indoor mile). But Fisher has never had a chance to run a fast mile outdoors on a big stage like he will tomorrow. He is clearly jazzed about the opportunity, especially since meeting organizers will have the pacemakers targeting a 3:45 finish time. He could certainly break 3:50.
“I think if the PB doesn’t go down I’m in big trouble,” said Fisher, eliciting a burst of laughter from the assembled media. “It’s been over a decade since I’ve run a mile, a true mile. So, this will be fun, it will be special, and it will be new. I’ve got nothing to lose here, and that’s a good feeling going into a race.”…