TEAM USA ANNOUNCED FOR IAAF WORLD INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
By David Monti
(c) 2012 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved. Used with permission.

USA Track & Field released their squad yesterday for the IAAF World Indoor Championships, scheduled for March 9 - 11 in Istanbul, Turkey.  The team will be led by 2010 world indoor champions Bernard Lagat and Brittney Reese, and five-time world champion Sanya Richards-Ross.

In the middle distances on the men's side, national 800-meter champion Duane Solomon was not named to the team because he failed to record a qualifying mark (sub-1:48.00 indoors or 1:45.00 outdoors).  So, second and fourth place finishers Michael Rutt and Tevan Everett were named to the team, both coached by Frank Gagliano of the New Jersey/New York Track Club.  Leo Manzano, who won the 1500m title last Sunday in Albuquerque, waived his berth on the team, opening the door for third place Galen Rupp to get a spot.  Rupp will be joined by national 1500m champion Matthew Centrowitz who, like Rupp, represents Nike's Oregon Distance Project group under coach Alberto Salazar.

The USA middle distance women's team has 1-2 finishers from the national meet in the 800m, Erica Moore and Phoebe Wright, and the second and third place finishers in the 1500m, Brenda Martinez and Sara Vaughn.  USA 1500m (and 3000m) women's champion Jenny Simpson had announced before the national meet that she would not compete in Istanbul, preferring to stay home and begin her preparations for the outdoor season.

Lagat, twice the world indoor 3000m champion, will be joined by 2008 Olympian Lopez Lomong in that discipline.  Lomong finished second in the national meet.  With Simpson abdicating her spot in the 3-K, second and third place national championships finishers Jackie Areson and Sara Hall will compete in Istanbul.

The full team is as follows:

MEN -
60m: Trell Kimmons, Justin Gatlin
400m: Gil Roberts, Calvin Smith
800m: Michael Rutt, Tevan Everett
1,500m: Matthew Centrowitz, Galen Rupp
3,000m: Bernard Lagat, Lopez Lomong
60mH: Aries Merritt, Kevin Craddock
LJ: William Claye
TJ: Claye, Christian Taylor
HJ: Jesse Williams
PV: Brad Walker, Scott Roth
SP: Reese Hoffa, Ryan Whiting
Hept.: Ashton Eaton
4x400m: Roberts, Smith, Frankie Wright, Manteo Mitchell, Quentin Iglehart-Summers, Jamaal Torrence

WOMEN -
60m: Tianna Madison, Barbara Pierre
400m: Sanya Richards-Ross, Natasha Hastings
800m: Erica Moore, Phoebe Wright
1,500m: Brenda Martinez, Sara Vaughn
3,000m: Jackie Areson, Sara Hall
60mH: Kristi Castlin, Vanneisha Ivy
LJ: Janay DeLoach, Brittney Reese
TJ: Amanda Smock
HJ: Chaunte Lowe, Inika Mcpherson
PV: Jenn Suhr, Mary Saxer
SP: Jillian Camarena-Williams, Michelle Carter
4x400m: Richards-Ross, Hastings, Leslie Cole, Jernail Hayes, Shelise Williams, Jessica Cousins

ENDS