Olympic Champion Centrowitz Still Learning How to Race
This year, in my eyes at least, there is a bigger emphasis on running fast. I think the Worlds will take care of themselves.
By Jon Hendershott, Track & Field News
He may be the Olympic gold medalist in the metric Mile, but Matthew Centrowitz admits he is still learning how to run the 1500.
Tell that to the other 12 Rio finalists who first let the American champion lead the entire distance and then couldn’t reel him in as his 50.5 closing lap secured the first U.S. 1500 win at the Games in 108 (really!) years.
Yet the 27-year-old member of the Portland-based Nike Oregon Project team knows all that glory was last year, but up ahead is this year’s World Championships campaign. Already owning the ’11 WC bronze and the ’13 silver, Centrowitz would like nothing better than to cap off that string with a gold this summer in London.
And a victory in the British capital—where he finished a close 4th in his first Games in ’12—would also add to the brightest award that he earned to begin the ’16 championship season as he won the World Indoor crown in Portland.
But Centrowitz also knows there is plenty of training miles yet to be logged, and plenty of high-caliber Diamond League races still to contest, en route to London in August.
The Maryland-born star shared some thoughts with T&FN before he and father Matt were the major guests at this week’s Track Town Tuesday gathering in Eugene.
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