The Garden will host the 103rd Millrose Games on Jan. 29, and adopted New Yorker Sanya Richards — the reigning women’s world 400-meter champ — will headline the meet.
Richards lives in Secaucus, N.J., during the football season with her fiance, Giants cornerback Aaron Ross. She was in Monaco accepting the IAAF Female World Athlete of the Year award the day he returned from a lengthy absence due to a hamstring injury, but she said Millrose will be the start of a 2010 that’s even bigger.
“It’s considered an off year [in track], but it’s not going to be an off year for me. I have my wedding coming up, which I’m just looking forward to. It’s going to be the highlight of 2010 for me,” Richards said of the Feb. 26 nuptials, on her 25th birthday in Austin, Texas. After winning her first world 400-meter title, she plans to dabble in more 200-meter races this season and run the outdoor Diamond League as well.
Richards isn’t the only local track star getting married. Rochester native Jenn Stuczynski — the reigning Olympic silver medalist in the pole vault — got married on Jan. 3 to Rick Suhr. Stuczynski has won seven straight U.S. titles, but she said Millrose, an event she had never won until last year, still gives her nightmares.
“Every year we joke about it, calling it the Millrose curse,” Stuczynski said. “It’s more mental than physical. The nightmares have already started. I don’t know what it is, because I love coming here and jumping. Maybe it’s because I love it so much. [I dream of] stalling, hitting a wall, weird things.”
The meet will also feature Bernard Lagat, going for a record eighth win in the Wanamaker Mile, defending 60-meter champ Michael Rodgers, and decathletes Bryan Clay and Trey Hardee, the reigning Olympic champ and world champ, respectively.
The Millrose Games will also have a Super 60 race, featuring Giants hero David Tyree, Willie Gault, Tim Dwight and other former Super Bowl speedsters.