NEW YORK, Feb 4: Kenenisa Bekele, the Olympic and world 10,000m champion, settled for second behind American Bernard Lagat in the first mile of his career on Friday at the Millrose Games indoor athletics meeting.

Lagat won in 3min 56.85sec, with Bekele second in 4:01.57.

Lagat was racing for the first time this season, and he arrived in New York having seen his training disrupted by the difficult birth of his first child on January 12, after which the baby and mother were hospitalized for two weeks.

Gail Devers was fourth in the 60m hurdles (8.13) in her return to the track after a year off that included giving birth to her daughter, Karsen Anise, last June.

At 39, the former Olympic champion found herself far from her personal best of 7.73 set in 2003, and from reigning Olympic 100m hurdles champion Joanna Hayes, who won in 7.93.

In the women’s 60m, reigning 100m world champion Lauryn Williams of the United States suffered her second defeat in two weeks as she finished third in 7.19. The race was won in a photo-finish, with Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell taking the victory over American Me’Lisa Barber, both in a time of 7.10.

Campbell, the Olympic 200m champion, trailed at the start but finally edged Barber by three-thousandths of a second.

American Shawn Crawford won the men’s 60m in 6.59, ahead of compatriots John Capel (6.63) and Terrence Trammell (6.67).—Agencies