Lagat relishing Baddeley match-up

Bernard Lagat is bidding to win a record eighth Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games.

The American star is also delighted to see Britain's in-form Andy Baddeley in the field.

Lagat, the former 2007 world outdoor 1500 metres and 5000m champion, tied Ireland's "Chairman of the Boards" Eamonn Coghlan 12 months ago when he claimed his seventh Wanamaker victory at the prestigious indoor meet and he will return to Madison Square Garden in search of making history.

Yet the presence of Baddeley and Kenya's Asbel Kiprop in the field means the Kenya-born American will have his work cut out on the tight confines of the Garden's banked track.

Both men defeated Lagat outdoors in 2009, Kiprop outsprinting the defending world 1500m champion for the silver medal in Berlin last August.

A month later Baddeley reeled in a front-running Lagat and then out-kicked him and the field for victory in the Fifth Avenue Mile in New York.

The Englishman will go to the Millrose meet having run an indoor personal best of 3:55.64 to claim the New Balance Invitational Elite mile at New York's Armory last Saturday - a world-leading time with his 1500m split of 3:40.6 the second best in the world so far.

"Andy Baddeley beat me at the Fifth Avenue Mile and when we looked at his results from this past week he did incredibly good, 3:55 is a good time," Lagat said.

"With Kiprop and Andy in the race it actually makes me prepare much better. I'm prepared for them.

"I really want to win this eighth one badly. I am happy that Asbel is here and Andy because they will make it go fast. I like running under pressure.

"When I look at these guys, they're not easy guys. They've beaten me before so there is that feeling of uncertainty that I may not win. That drives me crazy during the race and I like that."

Also in the Wanamaker field are American 800m specialist David Krummenacker, Mexico's Pablo Solares, South Africa's Peter van der Westhuizen and Britain's Mark Draper, who made it a British 1-2-3 behind Baddeley and Ricky Stevenson last Saturday at the New Balance Games in a personal best 3:56.8.

Kenya's Sally Kipyego and American duo Sarah Hall and Sarah Bowman headline a women's mile field that also features Britain's Hannah England on the start list and Ireland's retired European Indoor 400m bronze medallist Karen Shinkins.

Two-time Olympic 200m gold medallist Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica returns to the Millrose Games for the first time since winning the women's 60m in 2006 and she faces a strong American contingent including Muna Lee, Marshavet Hooker Myers and Lisa Barber.

American Michael Rodgers leads a men's 60m field also including compatriots Travis Padgett and Leroy Dixon.