EUGENE, Ore. — In the time it took Bernard Lagat to open his mail one day last May, two major things happened — one of which could radically alter the modern course of U.S. distance running.

For the first time in two decades, the U.S. suddenly had its own world-class middle-distance runner in Lagat, 30, the former Washington State star and two-time Olympic medalist who was informed he had legally immigrated to America from his native Kenya.

And America's newest track star promptly found himself in a timing pickle — the gravity of which he didn't realize until months later.

A U.S. resident since 1996, Lagat had applied for U.S. citizenship in late 2003. He was told it would take a year to clear.

But somehow — someone please compute the odds of this — the federal bureaucracy moved too quickly. Lagat was made a U.S. citizen and issued an American passport, three months before the torch was lit in Athens, where he was running for Kenya.

He didn't see the problem at the time, he said yesterday, as he prepared to face a top international field in today's Prefontaine Classic: Kenya, unlike the U.S., doesn't allow dual citizenship. And the Olympic Charter has this nagging little rule about nations entering only athletes who maintain legal citizenship.

That means Lagat, on paper at least, ceased being a Kenyan the moment he became an American. And that technically, the silver medal he won in a classic, shoulder-to-shoulder battle with eventual 1,500-meter gold medalist Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco could be in question.

Prefontaine Classic


What: America's elite, invitation-only track meet, drawing many of the world's top stars. The meet honors Oregon distance-running star Steve Prefontaine, killed in a Eugene automobile accident in 1975.

When/where: 1 p.m. today, Hayward Field, University of Oregon.

TV: Ch. 5, tape delayed until tomorrow, 11 a.m. to noon.

It takes three years to become eligible for world-championship or Olympic competition after switching countries, so Lagat could not win a medal for America. For all practical purposes, he was at that historic moment a man without a track country.

Innocent mistake, he said, offering a totally plausible explanation:

"I believed I could represent my country, Kenya, because I possessed my Kenyan passport. And the U.S. allows dual citizenship and didn't have a problem with me representing Kenya."

Surprisingly, no one in the track world — and to Lagat's knowledge, no one at the International Olympic Committee — has protested.

A likely source of such I-was-robbed-yipping would be the race's fourth-place finisher. But that was Timothy Kiptanui, a Kenyan countryman. Another potential complainant, bronze medalist Rui Silva of Portugal, already has acknowledged Lagat's amazing performance, suggesting he won't seek his own bump up on the medal stand.

"I don't believe anybody would do that," said Lagat, who often refers to himself in the first person. "At the end of the day, Lagat was second in the 1,500. Nobody else was second."

He shrugs and confesses it is out of his hands. But it's clear that a loss of the medal would be crushing to the former NCAA champion at WSU, who lives and trains with his younger brother, Cheseret, in Tucson, Ariz.

Lagat, who also owns a bronze in the 1,500 meters from the 2000 Sydney Games, enters today's typically talent-packed field for the Pre Classic's Bowerman Mile as the favorite — not only to win, but, if conditions are right, to perhaps do something that hasn't happened in this country for more than two decades: Start rewriting the U.S. record book for male milers.

The current U.S. mile mark, 3 minutes, 47.69 seconds, was set by Steve Scott — in 1982. The U.S. record for the 1,500-meter "metric mile" is Sydney Maree's 3:29.77 — from 1985.

Part of the reason is pragmatic: The mile, still a marquee event in the mind of a public still captivated by the old 4-minute-mile barrier, isn't routinely run in major competitions.

Even so, U.S. middle-distance running, in general, remains mired in a 20-year-long dry spell. No American miler has won a world-championship medal since 1987, or in the Olympics since 1968.

This is likely to change quickly with Lagat wearing red, white and blue. Lagat, the world's top-ranked middle-distance runner last year, has run the two fastest miles in the world this year (3:49 and 3:52). His personal best 1,500 time, 3:26.34, is the second-fastest in history. And his best outdoor mile time, 3:47.28, is already below the American record.

He's not predicting that kind of performance today, even with a super-charged crowd in Tracktown, USA.

"The mile here is really strong," he said. "I've seen the field. If I run 3:49, I'll be very pleased with that."

Lagat is in a slow-building process for the world championships of 2007 — the first time he likely will be eligible to compete internationally as an American — and for the 2008 Beijing Summer Games.

In the meantime, he might serve another crucial role — shaking up U.S. distance running, said competitor Alan Webb, who won the Bowerman Mile last year and will run the 2-mile race today.

"He'll be a great example for a lot of young guys," said Webb, who explains America's dry spell in distance running simply: "It's not for a lack of effort. Track was just a bigger sport then [in the 1970s]. It attracted more athletes. The U.S. competition was just so much more fierce."

The introduction of Lagat might be the adrenaline down the IV tube needed to make it that way again.

"Now, if you want to win the U.S. championships, you're going to have to be able to run a 3:30 [in the 1,500]," Webb said. "Anytime you up the level of competition like that, everyone else has to rise."

He calls it a domino effect. U.S. track and field might call it a godsend. The toppling starts as soon as today. Look for America's newest distance star to be leading the way — wearing, he said, Cougars colors, and propelled by that famed smooth Kenyan stride.

"I'll always be a Kenyan inside," Lagat said. "But ... I'm proud to be an American."

Ron Judd: 206-464-8280 or at rjudd@seattletimes.com