4:02:21 is now the official outdoor mile record in Delaware. This mark was set on the track at St. Mark’s High School this past Saturday by recent Harvard grad and Charter School of Wilmington alum Kieran Tuntivate in a special event meant to help eclipse four-minute mile barrier for the first time on Delaware soil. Unfortunately, Tuntivate fell just short of the intended goal.

But Tuntivate wasn’t disappointed. He hopes to catch on with a professional team this fall and step up his training, with an eye toward representing Thailand in the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo. “It would have meant a lot,” Tuntivate said. “The one thing I’ll say is it’s gonna happen eventually. If it’s me or someone else, it’s fun to be part of the group that’s trying to get it done in Delaware.”

Tuntivate had already two sub-4 miles, including a personal-best 3:57.36 indoors in February and a 3:57.87 outdoors just a week ago, on Aug. 15 in Nashville. He knew he was in shape to do it again, and he knew it had never been done before in Delaware.

Tuntivate has been one of Delaware’s brightest stars on the college running scene lately. Coming on the heels of a stellar college career and early professional racing success by Newark’s CRR Sam Parsons (read about Sam’s accomplishments), the former Charter School of Wilmington sensation put up some impressive numbers while running for the Harvard Crimson. He was an All-American at Harvard, where he holds school records in the mile, 3,000 and 10,000 meters. He won five Ivy League titles, gaining national attention in 2019 after earning an Ivy 3,000 crown despite running most of the race without his left shoe.

Based on the aforementioned milestones, former Harvard runner and CRR Bruce Weber calls Tuntivate “the best Harvard distance runner ever.” He added, “I thought Kieran’s results eclipsed [those of] Adam Dixon (’82-83), who won multiple Heps championships in track and made the 1984 Olympic Trials final in the 1,500. [Tuntivate] set the American record in the 1,000 meters, and that time—2:19.8—may be the best record at the school.” Weber should know, as the 1984 grad once held both Harvard’s two-mile and 3,000m records.

The fastest mile time run in Delaware (4:01.1, by a West Virginia runner) occurred way back in 1971 at an indoor meet at the University of Delaware Fieldhouse. Notably, CRR Jim Bray, who ran for Newark High School, once held the Delaware scholastic mile record for an astonishing 28 years before it was broken in 1999.

The world record in the mile is still a mind-boggling 3:43.13, set by Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj in 1999.

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