NYRR Millrose Winners Earn Readers' and Editors' Choice Awards

Track and field fans voiced their choices in this week's DyeStat's Performance of the Week poll, while DyeStat's editors made their own selection.

Readers’ Choice: Taylor Ewert

With 42.71 percent of the vote, Taylor Ewert won our Readers’ Choice vote, beating Yomif Kejelcha with his second-place tally of 25.11 percent.

The Beavercreek OH junior is no stranger to competition filled weekends. In the past, Ewert has successfully navigated competing in an array of events at meets hours apart.

She won the 2,000-meter steeplechase at the 2018 New Balance Nationals Outdoor and then broke the American U-20 record for the 10,000-meter race walk at the USATF Junior Championships the next day. Last fall, after flooding caused the postponement of the Ohio State Cross Country Championships, Ewert won her first state title and then qualified for Nike Cross Nationals the next day.

This time, Ewert condensed her two events, a mile race walk and a running mile into a single day at the NYRR Millrose Games. She opened with the race walk, an event in which she already held the high school record at 6:45.68.

Ewert slotted herself in behind Rachel Seaman of the New York Athletic Club early in the race. The pair were joined by Lauren Harris for the first few laps, but she was unable to hold pace and was eventually disqualified by the judges.

There was some shock when on the sixth lap, Ewert made a move into the lead. Seaman holds the Armory and NYRR Millrose Games records for the mile race walk, but there was Ewert challenging her.

Ewert continued to lead into the final lap when Seaman tried to strike. However, it was the high schooler who prevailed in 6:28.21, beating Seaman by 0.18 seconds.

Watch Ewert's racewalk race on USATF.TV.

Beyond the win, however, Ewert lowered her high school record by an impressive 17 seconds. As a reminder, this was a mile race. That is a huge improvement.

Watch Ewert's post racewalk interview on RunnerSpace.com.

Later in the meet program, Ewert toed the line for a second time. This time it was against other high school girls in the mile. Ewert was not the fastest miler in the field, but she held her own in an all-star field. She finished sixth in a personal-best 4:51.97.

Watch Ewert's race on USATF.TV.

Editors’ Choice: Yomif Kejelcha

This past week was filled with stellar performances. We saw three American records, a high school record, and many all-time top performances. However, the near world record of Yomif Kejelcha wins out.

The 21-year-old Ethiopian came into the NYRR Millrose Games with the world record of 3:48.45 on his mind. That was his stated goal and his pre-meet workouts that he made public were something to behold. Clearly, he was fit. But was he world record fit? After all, Hicham El Guerrouj's record had stood for 22 years, longer than Kejelcha has been alive.

With the world record as the goal in the Wanamaker Mile, Kejelcha slotted in behind the pacemaker as they together pushed toward the top of the record books. Kejelcha's training partner, Clayton Murphy, and Edward Cheserek tried to stay with the leading pair, but neither was capable of remaining at the front for long.

Just before the halfway point, Kejelcha took over the lead from the pacemaker, taking over a lap earlier than originally planned. Kejelcha passed 809 meters in 1:52.99, well on his way toward the record.

Running on his own, Kejelcha slowed slightly over the sixth and seventh laps. He was still running well, but for him to break El Guerrouj's record, he would need to turn to his finishing speed to get it done.

Kejelcha hit the bell in 3:20.13. He only had 200 meters remaining. It was going to be close. Kejelcha visibly picked up his pace as he rounded the final lap. Hitting the home stretch for the final time, he drifted slightly into lane two.

After crossing the finish line, he looked up to check the clock. Had he done it?

Unfortunately, the answer was no. Kejelcha just missed the mark, running 3:48.46, only 0.01 seconds off the world record. The Armory announced after the race that Kejelcha missed the record by even less, eight thousandths of a second (0.008). That is a level that is usually only used to break ties.

Watch Kejelcha's race on USATF.TV.

Despite the miss on the record, Kejelcha's indoor season is likely to continue with another attempt possible. At least Kejelcha can add his name to the prestigious list of Wanamaker Mile winners.

Watch Kejelcha's post-race interview on RunnerSpace.com.