Emma Coburn, Brenda Martinez, Sydney McLaughlin and Jenny Simpson after their distance medley relay world best at the IAAF World Indoor Tour meeting in Boston (© Victah Sailer)
Organisers of the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix have announced that world steeplechase champion Emma Coburn and world 1500m silver medallist Jenny Simpson are both set to return to the IAAF World Indoor Tour meeting in Boston on 10 February.
Coburn is coming off the best season of her career. After forming part of the team that set a world indoor best in the distance medley relay at the 2017 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix, Coburn won her sixth US steeplechase title and later that summer became the first US athlete to win a world steeplechase title. Her winning time of 9:02.58 broke her own North American record as well as the championship record.
“I’m really excited to come back to Boston as a world champion,” said Coburn. “The crowd support is always great at the Reggie Lewis Center and the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix has become a second home.”
Coburn will race over the flat 3000m in Boston where she will come up against three-time world medallist Jenny Simpson.
The 2011 world champion is also coming off a fantastic 2017 season. She too was part of the record-breaking distance medley team in Boston at the start of the year and she capped her season with a silver medal over 1500m at the IAAF World Championships London 2017.
Brenda Martinez, a third member of last year’s record-setting distance medley relay team, will also be returning to Boston. Martinez earned the silver medal over 800m at the 2013 IAAF World Championships in Moscow and has consistently been one of the USA’s top middle-distance runners. A 1500m semi-finalist at last year’s Olympics, Martinez ranked among the top three fastest US women at both 800m and 1500m in 2017.
Boris Berian, one of Martinez’s training partners, is another familiar face returning to Boston. The 24-year-old burst on to the international scene in 2015 when he became the fastest US man over 800m that year. The following season, Berian became the first US man since David Krummenacker to win the world indoor 800m title. Berian went on to reach the final at the 2016 Olympics, but having missed all of 2017 due to injury, he is looking to retain the world indoor title he won in 2016.
The New Balance Indoor Grand Prix, the only US stop on the IAAF World Indoor Tour, has played host to nine world records and 13 US records.
Organisers for the IAAF
