New Yorker Molly Huddle broke the American record in the 5,000 meters Friday night in Brussels, Belgium, running 14:44.76 to beat Shalane Flanagan’s 3-year-old record by a minuscule four-hundredths of a second. She is believed to be the first New Yorker to set an American distance record since Matt Centrowitz broke the men’s record in the 5,000 in 1982, when he ran 13:12.91.
Huddle finished in 10th place, behind nine African runners, at the Belgacom Van Damme Memorial Diamond League meet. The winner of the race was Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya, in 14:34.13. Huddle, 25, competes for Saucony. She was New York state champion while a student at Notre Dame High School in Elmira, a small community in upstate New York on I-86, a few miles from the Pennsylvania state line. Her time of 10:01.08 in the 2-mile her senior year, 2002, remains the national high school outdoor record.
She went on to an excellent career at the University of Notre Dame, where she was Big East outdoor champion in the 5,000 four times. Huddle had been having an excellent 2010 season, running lifetime bests in the 1,500 (4:09.22) and 5,000 (14:51.84) in July. In February, she finished second to Flanagan in the U.S. cross country championships. She competed in the Olympic Trials in 2004 and 2008, finishing seventh, ninth and 10th at different distances. In 2008 she ran 31:27 in the 10,000.