Contact: Tom Surber
Media Information Manager
USA Track & Field
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USATF News & Notes
Volume 3, Number 31 April 1, 2002
Runyan enters longest race of her career
2000 Olympic 1,500m finalist Marla Runyan will compete Sunday, April 7
against an elite field at the 30th Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10 Mile in
Washington, D.C.
In running her longest road race ever, Runyan will battle defending women’s
champion Elana Meyer, 1999 champion Jane Omoro and last year’s 4th place
finisher Milena Glusac, a member of Team USA’s silver medal winning women’s
8K team at last month’s World Cross Country Championships in Dublin,
Ireland.
Runyan, who set an American indoor 5,000m record of 15:07.33 in New York on
February 18, 2001, also won the U.S. outdoor 5,000m title last year. With
her 8th place finish in the 1,500 meters at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney,
Runyan, who is legally blind, became the first-ever Paralympian to compete
in the Olympic Games.
Top women’s competitors will vie for the first place prize of $5,000, the
largest winner’s check in any Washington area race.
Carlsbad looks good
2002 World Cross Country individual medalists Deena Drossin and Colleen De
Reuck will headline a strong women’s field at the Carlsbad 5000 April 7 in
San Diego, California.
Drossin, who won the silver medal in the senior women’s 8K race last month
at World Cross Country, and De Reuck, who won the bronze, will compete
against their Dublin teammate Elva Dryer at Carlsbad. Along with Drossin and
De Reuck, Dryer was on the U.S. women’s long course squad that won the
silver medal for Team USA in Dublin.
Drossin’s individual performance in Dublin was the best by an American at a
World Cross Country Championships since 1992 when Lynn Jennings won the last
of her three consecutive world titles. The performances by Drossin and De
Reuck marked the first time that two U.S. women had won individual World
Cross country medals at the same event since 1970 when Doris Brown won the
individual title and Maureen Dickinson was the runner-up.
Two-time U.S. cross country long course champion and American 10,000m record
holder Meb Keflezighi will headline a strong men’s field at Carlsbad, which
includes Kenyan stars Luke Kipkosgei, Sammy Kipketer and Joseph Kosgei.
The largest 5K prize purse in the world of $70,000 will be up for grabs at
Carlsbad. Included in the prize structure is a $10,000 bonus for a world
record and a $5,000 bonus for an American record.
Griffin sets masters record
2000 Olympic Trials marathoner Dr. Kim Griffin set a new American masters
women’s 40-44 age group indoor mile record recently at the USATF National
Masters Championships in Boston.
The last woman to win NCAA and U.S. 10,000 meter titles in the same year,
Griffin ran 4:59.78 in Boston, bettering the previous 1,500m standard of
4:59.9 by Madelyn Noe-Schlentz.
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