Chelimo, ‘King’ Cheserek, Engels, Bishop-Nriagu among Camel City Elite’s early commitments
World class field expected at indoor meet on Saturday, Feb. 3, 2018 offering 6th edition event record $75,000-plus prize purse
By Eddie Wooten, News & Record
The lineups for the 2018 Camel City Elite Races in Winston-Salem are taking shape and already include notable star power for what will be the event's richest purse to-date.
The sixth annual event at JDL Fast Track, offering $75,000-plus in prize money, will take place at 2:00pm on Saturday, Feb. 3. Camel City is a fast-paced meet in which professional runners, and a few collegians, compete within a two-hour time block. Admission will be $10.
Camel City's signature moments have come in the Mile races, where the fastest times in North Carolina track history have been recorded. Matthew Centrowitz's 3:54.02 won the Mile in 2016, just six months before he would win the United States' first Olympic gold medal in the 1500 meters since 1908. A year earlier, three-time Olympian and Duke alumna Shannon Rowbury set the North Carolina mark for women, clocking 4:22.66.
Besides Centrowitz and Rowbury, a number of Olympic medalists or world champions have dotted the fields in the first five years. Among them: decathlon great Ashton Eaton and his wife, Olympic heptathlete Brianne Theisen-Eaton; Olympic silver medalist and UNC-Greensboro alumnus Paul Chelimo; track Olympian and bobsled Winter Olympian Lolo Jones; world champion hurdler David Oliver; Olympic medalist Leo Manzano and two-time Canadian Olympian Melissa Bishop-Nriagu.
Continue reading, includes four athlete bios and videos, at: greensboro.com
