Cragg right on track for Mottram head-to-head in Boston

ALISTAIR CRAGG will go head-to-head with Australian distance star Craig Mottram in Boston next weekend, it was confirmed last night.

The two will meet over 3000 metres at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games on January 27. Both Mottram, the 2005 World Cross-Country bronze medallist, and Ireland’s Cragg, the 2005 European Indoor Champion at 3000m, have won at the Boston meet before.

Mottram, the first non-African to win a medal at 5000m in a major championship since 1987, won a two-mile race over a stacked field in Boston last year that included Cragg, who finished third, less than a second behind. In 2005, Cragg, Ireland’s national record-holder indoors at 3000, won at that distance in an upset over Ethiopian star Kenenisa Bekele.