PANDEMIC FORCES CANCELLATION OF 2021 MILLROSE GAMES
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2020 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved - Used with permission.

(22-Dec) -- The 2021 Millrose Games, the oldest continuously contested indoor track meet in the United States founded in 1908, has been canceled for 2021, organizers said today.  The meet, part of the World Athletics Indoor Tour, had been scheduled for February 13 at the Armory Track & Field Center in New York. It would have been the 114th edition of the meet.

The Armory Foundation, which owns and operates the meet, said today that "after extensive consultations with health experts" they thought it best to cancel the event given the spike in COVID-19 cases in both New York and nationally.

"Canceling the iconic Millrose Games was a very difficult decision, but with all the health concerns surrounding an event of this complexity, rather than risking the athletes, officials, meet personnel, media and others, we have decided to wait until February 12, 2022, for the next edition of the Millrose Games," said meet director Ray Flynn through a statement.

The meet was held in Madison Square Garden until 2011, then found a new home at the Armory in 2012.  Some of the greatest athletes in the history of athletics have competed there, including Paavo Nurmi, Eamonn Coghlan, Allyson Felix, Joetta Clark, Carl Lewis, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, and Bernard Lagat.  The Wanamaker Mile, the signature event of the meet, has been contested every year since 1926.


PHOTO: Elinor Purrier after winning the 2020 Wanamaker Mile for Women where she clocked a meet record 4:16.85 (photo courtesy of The Armory Foundation)