Former Washington State star Bernard Lagat, who won the silver medal in the 1500-meters at the 2004 Olympics while representing Kenya, announced this past spring that he had become a U.S. citizen.

It was soon revealed that Lagat had actually gained citizenship in May, 2004, much sooner than he anticipated. He thought the process, which he began in late 2003, would carry on well past the Athens Olympics.

Hearing the news of Lagat's early citizenship, there were some within the U.S. statistical community who thought that Lagat should retroactively be considered the American Record holder at 1500-meters. After all, he had run 3:29.21 and 3:27.40 during the summer of 2004 and both marks were better than Sydney Maree's U.S. best of 3:29.77. They also felt that he should get credit for American Indoor Records for his 3:49.89 for the mile, and 3:33.34 en-route for 1500-meters, which he had run in Fayetteville in February, when most people thought he was still a Kenyan. Both marks bettered the existing American Records of 3:51.8 (Steve Scott) and 3:38.12 (Jeff Atkinson).

There were other statisticians who argued that Lagat shouldn't get credit for an Outdoor American Record achieved while he was still representing Kenya, despite the fact that he was officialy a U.S. citizen at the time. There was less resistance to him getting credit for this year's indoor records.

Since all new American Records have to be ratified at the annual USATF Meeting, the issue wasn't resolved until last week in Jacksonville, Florida, the site of this year's gathering. The result? Bob Hersh, USATF's Men's & Women's T&F Record keeper, confirms that Lagat is the new American Outdoor Record holder for 1500-meters. But the ratified mark is the 3:29.30 that Lagat ran this past September in Rieti, Italy, not either of the times he ran last year. And he is also the American Indoor Record holder for the mile (3:49.89) and 1500-meters (3:33.34).

Sadly, what was missed in Fayetteville in February was the excitement and publicity for the sport that would have been generated had everyone known at the time that Lagat had broken Scott's 24-year old mile record.