Ramsden wins second NCAA title

With a little help from her Kiwi mate, Maia Ramsden has signed off on a breakthrough indoor athletics season in style with her second NCAA title in Boston.

The 21-year-old Harvard student strode to a memorable victory in the women’s mile at the NCAA indoors championships held just a stone’s throw from her campus – in the process smashing a nine-year-old meet record with a quality time of 4min 25.13sec.

The winning time, which slashed the previous best mark of 4:27.18 set by Leah O’Connor in 2015, was just shy of Ramsden’s PB of 4:24.83 set in New York earlier this year.

Ramsden, who was a finalist in the 1500 metres at the recent world indoor championships in Glasgow, led a Kiwi one-three finish in the mile as she headed home fellow New Zealander Kimberley May of Providence who finished back in third, in a personal best of 4:27.36.

Later Ramsden, who described her victory as “the dream”, paid tribute to the work done by Aucklander May who set the pace early, and helped her through to the record-breaking time.

“I had no idea we were going so fast,” said Ramsden after the race. “That’s credit to my fellow Kiwi who really took it out beautifully.

“I’ve run with her a lot. She’s so smooth, and it’s so fun to think that one day we are going to be wearing the black singlet together.’’

Ramsden’s indoors mile triumph follows up her achievement in winning the NCAA 1500m outdoors title last year.

“This is the dream ... my dad’s here, my grandparents, my aunt and uncle, my cousin – that’s the coolest part of all of this,” she said.

A “tired” Ramsden was ready to take a break after a busy indoors season, though said it had all been excellent preparation for what lies ahead outdoors.

Among her ambitions will sit the Paris Olympics. She needs a 4-second improvement on her 1500m PB of 4:06.51, set in the heats in Glasgow, to meet the Games standard of 4:02.40.