Janelle Branch continues racewalk journey at Indoor Championships
On Jan 29 Clarke University cross country and track distance coach Janelle Branch placed 4th in the prestigious Milrose Games in New York City, which this year doubled as the USATF Indoor National Championships for the 3,000 meter racewalk.
Branch finished .13 seconds away from the podium and her time of 13:58.76 is currently 29th in the world for the 2021-2022 indoor season. She was bested by two Olympians (Maria Mitch-Coffey 2012 & 2016, Miranda Melville 2016) and a World Championships 4th place finisher (Katie Burnett 2017).
This was a 17 second PR for Branch, and this season she has knocked 30 seconds off her previous best time of 14:28 from 2010. Full results can be found here https://results.millrosegames.org/
The following weekend, Branch flew to California to compete in the World Team Trials Qualification race, but unfortunately a hamstring injury caused her to drop out of the race.
Although her next race is still to be determined depending on the injury, Branch is looking forward to cheering for the Clarke track and field team as they prepare to wrap up their indoor season at the Heart Indoor Championships this Friday and Saturday.