By David Monti
(c) 2011 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved. Used with permission.

NEW BALANCE GAMES TO FEATURE TOP TALENT IN INVITATIONAL EVENTS: The New Balance Games, scheduled at the Armory for Saturday, January 22, will include six invitational events in addition to the central high school program, according to Ian Brooks who coordinates elite athletes for the meeting.  "I've got to tell you that this year I've been inundated (with athlete requests)," Brooks, an Englishman, told reporters.  Brooks has 14 women lined up for the invitational mile, led by former NCAA star Jenny Simpson, the former Jenny Barringer, who will be making her Armory debut.  Others entered in the women's mile include Canadian Olympians Carmen Douma-Hussar and Megan Wright; Ireland's Ciara Mageean, the reigning IAAF World Junior Championships silver medallist at 1500m; Serbia's Marina Muncan, the 2009 World University Games 1500m champion; and Americans Frances Koons, Lindsay Gallo and Brenda Martinez.  Brooks will also have an 800m invitational for women, a new event, led by two of the seven USA women who broke two-minutes for that distance last year, Maggie Vessey (1:57.84 PB) and Phoebe Wright (1:58.22).  "The new event may be the race of the day," Brooks asserted.  The meet will also have invitational 400m races for both men and women, and an invitational mile and 1500m for men.