Organisers of the Herculis meeting have announced that the women’s mile event at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Monaco on July 12 will be named the ‘Brave Like Gabe Mile’ in honour of the US distance runner, Gabriele Grunewald, who died earlier this month after a 10-year battle with cancer.
Grunewald competed in Monaco on three occasions during her career. In 2012 she set a 3000m PB of 8:43.52 (which she improved by a second one year later), and in 2013 she recorded a 1500m lifetime best of 4:01.48 when finishing fifth in Monaco. She returned to Monaco in 2016 to contest the 3000m in what was to be her final race outside of the USA.
Fittingly, three women who also have fond memories of racing in Monaco – having all broken world records in the principality – will contest the Brave Like Gabe Mile on 12 July. Genzebe Dibaba, who broke the 1500m world record in Monaco in 2015, will take on Kenya’s Beatrice Chepkoech and Sifan Hassan. Chepkoech smashed the steeplechase world record in Monaco in 2018 while Hassan set a 5km world record on the roads in Monaco earlier this year.
The men’s 1500m will be another high-quality event in Monaco as world champion Elijah Manangoi lines up against world indoor record-holder Samuel Tefera and Olympic champion Matthew Centrowitz. And in the men’s triple jump, world and Olympic champion Christian Taylor will face two of his biggest rivals: Pedro Pablo Pichardo and Will Claye.
SOURCE: IAAF PHOTO: Gabriele Grunewald Copyright IAAF
