CLICK HERE 2011 RESULTS

CLICK HERE TO BUY MEET MERCHANDISE

The 2011 Music City Distance Carnival provided three and a half hours packed with hot running action that matched the unseasonably high temperatures. A crowd of around 600 saw two meet records fall and a very exciting men's Mile that yielded four sub-4:00 performances.

The first meet record to fall was in the men's 800m. Karjuan Williams clocked 1:47.10 to shave six hundredths of the six-year old record set by Timothy Dunne. Behind him, Virginia's Anthony Kostelac, who just missed making the NCAA Championships the week before, bounced back well to a 1:47.28 PR and U.S Champs "A" qualifier.

In a men's 5000 that, despite the 94-degreee heat index, went out at 13:20 pace courtesy of Bolota Asmerom, Reid Coolsaet ran a more conservative race that paid dividends with a win and a meet and facility record of 13:51.23. He just held of a fast-closing Paul Chelimo, whose 13:53.02 clocking was a 10-second PR.

The women's mile record fell for the second straight year. Britain's Barbara Parker was content to sit in behind the pacer, Melissa DeLeon, for the first half, and then behind Julia Lucas on the third lap. But in the last 300, Parker - whose primary event is the steeplechase - moved up a gear with apparent ease and ended up winning by over 5 seconds in a very impressive 4:30.51 to hack three and a half seconds off the MCDC record set by Amy Mortimer last year.

The most exciting race, by far, however was the men's mile (watch the video, right), which saw just a quarter of a second separating the top three runners, with Matthew Elliott stealing it in the very last stride of a 56.9 final circuit. Elliott, breaking 4 minutes for the first time, ripped a 56.8 last lap to win in 3:58.96, with Macklin Chaffee second in 3:59.01 and Tony Jordanek placing 3rd for the second straight year in 3:59.21. Fourth placed Patrick Todd provided the Distance Carnival's 15th sub-4 mile.

Race coverage by Flotrack

Exciting Men's Mile Race