Contact: Tom Surber
Media Information Manager
USA Track & Field
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USATF News & Notes
Volume 3, Number 66 July 10, 2002
Strutzel, MacDonald break records at Montreal CanAm meet
Jesse Strutzel and Kelly MacDonald set new meet records Tuesday night at the
Les Internationaux de Demi-Fond de Montreal I meet, the fourth stop on the
2002 CanAm High Performance Distance Circuit.
The fourth-place finisher in the men’s 800 meters at the 2002 USA Outdoor
Championships in June, Strutzel joined two other competitors in bettering
the previous 1,500m meet record of 3 minutes, 43.35 seconds by Hector Torres
in 2000. Strutzel’s time of 3:42.45 won the race, with Pan American Games
5,000m bronze medalist David Galvan of Mexico second in 3:42.97. Former
University of Minnesota standout Chad Johnson was third in 3:43.03, with
Canadian record holder Kevin Sullivan sixth (3:45.37) in his seasonal debut.
A three-time Pac-10 Conference champion while at Arizona State University,
Kelly MacDonald shattered the meet and CanAm Circuit records with her
10:07.0 in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase. MacDonald bettered the previous
CanAm series record of 10:29.40 by Tonya Dodge after running the fastest
steeple ever on Canadian soil with her 10:04.33 earlier this year at the
Harry Jerome Classic. MacDonald led virtually the entire way Tuesday in
defeating Canadian champion and runner-up Margaret Butler (10:09.29).
After setting a meet record in the women’s 800m Saturday at the New Balance
Maine Distance Festival (2:00.26), Chantee Earl won the 800m in Montreal in
2:04.50. In the women’s metric mile, 2001 USA Fall Cross Country champion
Priscilla Hein won the race in 4:19.09.
Competition will resume Friday at the final stop on the CanAm Circuit, the
Les Internationaux de Demi-Fond de Montreal II. For more information on the
2002 CanAm Circuit visit: http://miscott.home.att.net/canam.
Ndereba enters Chicago Marathon
Two-time defending champion and women’s world record holder Catherine
Ndereba of Kenya has entered the 2002 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon.
At last year’s Chicago Marathon, Ndereba set the world record of 2 hours 18
minutes 47 seconds, shattering by nearly a minute Naoko Takahashi’s world
record set just the week before in Berlin. Ndereba joins a field that
includes Great Britain’s Paula Radcliffe, who ran the fastest women’s debut
marathon ever in winning the London Marathon last April in 2:18:56.
The U.S. will have a strong presence at this year’s event, highlighted by
men’s world record holder Khalid Khannouchi, who has made this race his own.
Khannouchi’s remarkable success at the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon began
with his 1997 debut victory in 2:07:10. After a runner-up finish in 1998,
Khannouchi set a then world record of 2:05:42 at the 1999 event. After
becoming a U.S. citizen in May of 2000, Khannouchi set the U.S. record of
2:07:01 with his third Chicago victory in the fall.
Against one of the strongest fields ever assembled, Khannouchi won the 2002
London Marathon, lowering his own world and American record to 2:05:38.
Other U.S. stars competing at Chicago include Deena Drossin, who won the
2001 U.S. Marathon title in the fastest U.S. women’s marathon debut ever of
2:26:58. Drossin’s seventh-place finish overall at the 2002 New York
Marathon made her the fourth-fastest American woman of all-time. 2002 U.S.
10,000m champion Jen Rhines is also in the field, along with 1999 U.S.
10,000m champion and 2002 U.S. 5,000m champ Alan Culpepper.
The 25th Anniversary of the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon takes place on
Sunday, October 13. The race is expected to fill the registration cap of
37,500 participants. For more information visit: www.chicagomarathon.com.
IAAF celebrates 90th Anniversary
The International Association of Athletics Federations will celebrate its
90th Anniversary July 16-21 at the 2002 Coca Cola/IAAF World Junior
Championships in Kingston, Jamaica.
Included as one of the celebrations of this Jubilee year, former Jamaican
Olympic champion Deon Hemmings will conduct the IAAF Training Clinic in the
National Stadium in Kingston on the eve of the Opening Ceremony of the
Championships. The Ceremony also will include a special anniversary party
for IAAF President Lamine Diack and the World Athletics Family.
At the same time, a celebration will take place at the DN Galan meet in
Stockholm, the city where the IAAF was originally founded in 1912.
Celebrations will continue throughout the summer and reach their climax at
the World Athletics Gala in Monaco on November 17.
For more information visit www.iaaf.org.
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