Kiplagat sprinted home to nip Ndiku by three-hundredths of a second, clocking three minutes, 52.63 seconds on the fast University of Arkansas track.
“It was a very fast race all around,” Kiplagat told reporters after the first six finishers dipped under the year’s previous fastest mile.
“I’m definitely happy with where I am at with still plenty of time to improve before this summer,” said the 22-year-old Olympic hopeful.
Former world long jump champion Tianna Madison defeated Jamaican Olympic 200 meters gold medallist Veronica Campbell-Brown to win the featured women’s 60 meters as three other season’s best for 2012 were set at the meeting.
American Madison, the 2005 world outdoor long jump champion, raced to a lifetime best of 7.02 seconds for a six-hundredths of a second win over Campbell-Brown. Former world 200 meters champion Allyson Felix finished fourth in 7.11.
Madison also had the fastest time in the preliminaries, a then-world leading 7.05 seconds.
World champion Kirani James of Grenada showed he is ready for a run at Olympic gold with a season-leading 45.19 seconds in the 400 meters, and Jamaican Commonwealth Games 100 meters gold medallist Lerone Clarke ran the year’s fastest 60 meters as he finished in 6.52 seconds to beat former Olympic champion Justin Gatlin.
Olympian Galen Rupp added to the show with the fastest indoor two-mile by an American, running 8:09.72 to better Bernard Lagat’s 2011 best.
Blake opens season with lifetime best in 400m
In Kingston, Jamaica, Jamaican world 100 meters champion Yohan Blake opened his 2012 Olympic season with a lifetime best of 46.49 seconds to finish second in the 400 meters at the Camperdown Classic on Saturday.
The man seen as the major challenger to world record holder Usain Bolt’s sprint titles at the London Games looked sharp as he shaved three tenths of a second off his three-year-old previous best of 46.80.
He was passed in the last 10 meters by world 4x400 relay bronze medalist Allodin Fothergill who won in 46.28 seconds.
“It’s a wonderful feeling because as you can see I ran a personal best, so the season is going quite well,” Blake told Reuters. “I am much stronger this year and also much faster, running 46.4 in my first outing is wonderful.
“If I have one more (400m) I think I can go faster,” said the 22-year-old who set lifetime bests of 9.82 and 19.26 seconds at 100 and 200 meters in a breakthrough 2011 season.
Training partner Bolt originally was scheduled to compete in the meeting, but is away on business this week, according to both his agent and his coach.
“Bolt is not injured,” Glen Mills, who coaches both Bolt and Blake, said. “He trained up to the day before he left the island for his business trip.”
No date has been set for Bolt’s first race of the season.
Blake expects to run the 100 or 200 meters at the Jamaica International Invitational on May 5, but is still unsure whether he will attempt the sprint double at the country’s trials for the London Olympics.
“I would love to double, but coach Mills (may have) something else in store for me. I don’t know what his plan is yet, so I’m just waiting on that,” Blake said.
“Everybody wants that gold medal and I think its going to be the person (who performs) on the day,” Blake added on whether he thought he could beat Bolt in London.
“Usain Bolt is my training partner, we encourage each other everyday, we have a wonderful chemistry going on but when we are on the track, its all business.”
Blake will run two to three races before Jamaica’s Olympic trials from June 28-July 1 in Kingston, agent Cubie Seegobin said.
“We have not decided where we are going to run, were looking at all our options,” Seegobin said.
“When coach Mills decides that he’s ready to run and what event, then we’ll decide.”
