Leo Manzano, 26, closed out his 2010 European track season in remarkably impressive fashion, setting new personal bests for the mile (3:50.64), 1500 meters (3:32.37, a second place in Brussels behind Olympic gold medalist Asbel Kiprop), and 800 meters (1:44.56). Manzano finished the season on September 4 with a third place in the 1500 at the Continental Cup in Croatia. Back in the winter, he'd won the 1500 at the USA Indoor Championships. At the University of Texas, Manzano was an NCAA champion in the 2005 and 2008 in the 1500 outdoors; at the NCAA Indoor Championships, he twice won the mile and was a member of Texas' victorious 2008 Distance Medley Relay. He also won a total of ten Big 12 titles. He was second in the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials and had been second at the 2007 USA Championships in the 1500. Manzano was 12th in his semifinal at the Beijing Olympics; he was 12th in the final at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin.  In high school in Marble Falls, Texas, he was a nine-time Texas 4A champion. Manzano was interviewed at a press conference a couple of days before the Fifth Avenue in New York, where he finished fifth in 3:54.17.

Coming into the Fifth Avenue, did you still feel fresh, or do you think "well, it's all over after Sunday, and I can just collapse?"
Leo Manzano: I think anytime you're faced with competition, subconsciously, you're ready to go. So I see guys like Nick (Willis) just walk by or Andrew Baddeley and it's like "alright, we're in the zone again."

We used to be lucky if I we saw one American in an 800 or a 1500 in Europe. Now there are quite a few. And they've earned it. Race directors are happy to have them. You've been at it long enough to see a change. When you started going over there, there probably wasn't much of an American presence.
LM: My first year, there weren't really that many guys. People were starting to talk about the Americans, how there was a lot of potential and this and that. But it was kind of like a baby force. You didn't really see much. But I think it was really this year when you really got to see a lot of it take place and the thought that had been there last year just flowered.