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Langley Mustangs Endurance Group athlete and former Trinity Western University Spartan Regan Yee won the 3,000m indoor meet at the University of Washington on Saturday, Jan. 18. She finished in a new personal best time of 8:58.25.
In second place was Stanford’s Ella Donaghu in 8:58.31, while the third-place finisher was Oiselle’s Mel Lawrence crossing the finish line at 8:58.35 showing on the clock. The race couldn’t have been much closer. Yee took the lead during the final lap but was almost swallowed up by Donaghu and Lawrence over the final stretch, before powering over the final few metres to take the race.
The performance is a small improvement on her previous personal best (hundredths of a second). Apparently, she has been running high volumes in the winter, and although the race didn’t feel too-too hard, she is currently not her sharpest. The performance gets her into the New York Road Runner’s Millrose Games happening on the Feb. 8 weekend in the same event.
Millrose, with its banked track, offers an opportunity to improve upon her U of W performance.
Her best outdoors remains 9:29.68 – if she runs another flat, outdoors 3,000m race, it is guaranteed to be a big new personal best. Her 3,000msc best from July 2019 is 9:35.49.
The 24-year-old qualified by half a second at the last possible opportunity for the 2019 Doha World Athletics Championships.
The 2020 Tokyo Olympic standard is 9:30.00.
SHOESTRINGS: Fellow Canadians Mariah Kelly who trains out of Victoria finished sixth in the time of 9:01.08, while Mustangs training partner to Yee, Lindsay Carson, gutted out a 9:18.87 finish time. It has been seven years since Kelly competed in an indoor 3K, and is a personal best. The 1500m specialist trains with Vic City Elite at the Athletics Canada West Hub. Carson, also ran a pb in the off-distance event, having previously run a 9:24.70 in Boston, MA some thirteen years prior. It’s been a long time for the 5K/10K specialist.
