Regan Yee runs world-lead in the mile

On Saturday evening at the Hawkeye Pro Classic in Iowa City, Iowa., Regan Yee of South Hazelton, B.C. opened up her 2023 indoor track season in incredible form, running a two-second personal best and world-leading time of 4:30.46 in the women’s mile.

Fun season opener in Iowa City last night! Thanks @americantrack for hosting us 👊🏼 https://t.co/zKbdzrVsah

— Regan Yee (余嘉茵) (@_YeezyDoesIt) January 22, 2023

Yee and American middle-distance runner Molly Sughroue battled over the final lap, but it was Yee who came up with the edge in the final 20 metres to win by four one-hundredths of a second.

Although Yee crushed her race, her hard work did not stop there. She immediately hopped on a treadmill to do an 8x800m workout. Many middle-distance runners will do short workouts after racing to help flush out lactic acid and to get their bodies used to training on tired legs.

The mile is a distance that Yee is relatively unfamiliar with, not having raced this distance in over five years. Her previous personal best was 4:32.79.

The 27-year-old hoped for more in her final races of 2022, missing out on the 3,000m steeplechase final at World Championships and just missing the podium at the Canadian 5K Championships in Moncton.

She represented Team Canada at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the steeplechase and currently trains with Flagstaff-based team Under Armour’s Dark Sky Mission Project. Next weekend, she will be racing a more familiar distance, the 3,000m, at the John Thomas Terrier Classic in Boston. 

Yee was featured on the cover of the August/September 2022 edition of Canadian Running. Check out more about Yee and her story here.