WEEKEND ROUNDUP: Wynne wins Falmouth Mile; Is Nia Akins leaving Brooks Beasts?
With the Olympics in the rear view mirror, the pro season resumes this week with Wanda Diamond League meets this week in Lausanne, Switzerland and Silesia, Poland.
In Falmouth, Massachusetts, Henry Wynne (Paul Merca photo) of the Brooks Beasts won the Falmouth Elite Mile on the campus of Falmouth High School in conjunction with the annual Asics Falmouth Road Race Friday night.
Wynne sat comfortably in the middle of the pack, and made his move with about 300 meters to go.
As the leaders came off the final turn, Wynne edged to the front, but was pressed to the line by Festus Lagat and Amon Kemboi of Kenya.
Wynne hung on for the victory in 3:53.76, ahead of Lagat's 3:53.82, with Kemboi third in 3:54.23.
Washington State alum Paul Ryan was fifth in 3:54.54.
In the women's race, Washington alum Kayley DeLay of the Brooks Beasts was seventh in 4:30.07, with new Beast teammate Teagan Schein-Becker tenth in 4:35.39.
Dorcas Ewoi took the win in a meet record 4:23.11.
IS NIA AKINS LEAVING THE BROOKS BEASTS?
A reader alerted us to this post making the rounds on the popular running website, LetsRun.com.
On its message board is a post titled, "Nia Akins and Brooks part ways", where the poster wrote that Akins, a Paris Olympian and two-time US national champion and the Seattle based Brooks Beasts have split.
As of this writing, there are five pages worth of takes from the anonymous message board.
Our position on this has always been to take message board chatter as just that--chatter. That said, when a number of posters offer their takes on a two-time US national champion allegedly leaving the pro team where she has flourished, it raises a red flag.
There are several layers surrounding this, including, in no particular order, Akins, Brooks sports marketing, Beasts coach Danny Mackey and the team; and of course, agent Ray Flynn and the agency that represents Akins, Flynn Sports Management.
It should be noted that Flynn also represents Josh Kerr of the Beasts, who is the reigning world champion at 1500 meters, and was second in the Olympic 1500 meter race.
If this has to do with Akins' contract status, there is absolutely no way that the parties involved will speak publicly on this. When it comes to contracts with shoe companies, they are usually not publicized, and normally come with non-disclosure agreements.
There are suggestions that she's allegedly looking for a new training group, which is plausible given that she's the only woman on the team who is a true 800 meter runner after Laurie Barton left after last season. The men's side has Olympian Brandon Miller, and world championships competitors Isaiah Harris and Brannon Kidder.
Akins is entered in both the Lausanne and the Silesia Diamond League meets this week.
Akins, who got to the semifinals in the 800 at the Olympics, is entered in that event in Lausanne on Thursday, and in the 1000 meter run on Sunday in Silesia.
We have reached out to representatives at both Brooks and Flynn Sports Management. We will keep the readership posted if something happens.
NOTE: The Asics Falmouth Road Race and LetsRun.com contributed to this report.
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