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.

Also in the field next Saturday will be American Jorge Torres, the 2006 US 10,000m champion outdoors.

Cragg is also being lined up for a New York indoor debut the following Friday in the Wanamaker Mile at the 100th Millrose Games in New York on February 2.

Cragg’s agents, Global Athletics, are meet organisers for the legendary Madison Square Garden meet, and want the Irishman to race against both Mottram and Bernard Lagat on a night when Irish Wanamaker legends

Eamonn Coughlan and Marcus O’Sullivan will be among the guests of honour.

“Nothing’s been announced yet,” said a source close to the organisers, “but we’re hoping Alistair will compete at Millrose.

“He’s been a popular runner at the Boston Indoor Games over the past couple of years and although he hasn’t been to Millrose before, we’re hoping to put that right soon enough.”