Team USA finishes second at Norwich Union International Match

Team USA finishes second at Norwich Union International Match

Allyson Felix, Wallace Spearmon, Bernard Lagat and Brianna Glenn led Team USA to a runner-up finish on the final day of the 2006 Norwich Union International Match in Birmingham, England.

Russia won the team competition over the weekend with 349 points, with Team USA finishing second with 312.5 points. Britain was third with 269 points with China fourth with 158.5.

The 2005 World Outdoor champion in the women's 200 meters, Allyson Felix ran a seasonal best through a swirling crosswind in winning in 22.19 seconds. Sanya Richards was the runner-up in 22.52 seconds. Also in 200m action, World Outdoor Championships silver medalist Wallace Spearmon had little trouble in picking up his fifth victory of the season by winning his specialty in 20.30 seconds.

Two-time Olympic medalist and reigning USA Outdoor 1,500m and 5,000m champion Bernard Lagat won the men's 3,000 meters in 7 minutes, 50.49 seconds, over Britain's Mo Farah by more than a second.

Brianna Glenn, a last minute replacement for injured 2003 World Outdoor 100m champion Torri Edwards, won the women's 100 meters in 11.34 seconds, finishing just ahead of Russia's Irina Khabarova (11.41).

The U.S. dominated the men's 400m hurdles, as 2005 USA Outdoor champion Kerron Clement finished just ahead of his U.S. teammate and reigning world champion, Bershawn Jackson, in 48.64 seconds. Jackson's runner-up time was 48.67 seconds. In the women's 100m hurdles, two-time World Outdoor Championships finalist Jenny Adams won easily in 12.94 seconds.

Other U.S. winners on the final day of competition included 2006 USA Indoor and Outdoor champion Khadevis Robinson in the men's 800m (1:47.48), and 2006 World Indoor champion Brad Walker won the men's pole vault with clearance of 5.61meters/18 feet, 4.75 inches.

On Saturday, 2004 World Indoor champion Christian Cantwell continued his global domination this outdoor season by defeating teammate Reese Hoffa in the men's shot put. Cantwell won with a throw of 21.13 meters/69 feet, 4 inches, with Hoffa the runner-up with a toss of 20.62m/67-8.

USA's Jordan Vaden was an unexpected winner of the men's 100m. Running into -1.5 meters per second headwind, Vaden won in 10.39 seconds to upstage the home favorites Mark Lewis-Francis and Dwain Chambers. Lewis-Francis was second in 10.41 with Chambers third, two hundredths behind.

Jamel Ashley won the men's 400m in 45.55 seconds over Russia's European Championships silver medalist Vladimir Frolov, and Gabe Jennings was a tearful winner of the famous Emsley Carr Mile in 4 minutes, 10.02 seconds, becoming the first American winner of the race since National Track and Field Hall of Famer Jim Ryun in 1967.

"It is a great honor," said Jennings to the IAAF website. "I am very emotional at the moment but I'm feeling fantastic."

For more information on the 2006 Norwich Union International Match, including the complete results, visit www.iaaf.org.