|
For Immediate Release
27 March 2007
CONTACTS: (Please do not
publish these numbers. THE NUMBER FOR PUBLICATION IS THE RACE HOTLINE AT
301-320-3350 AND THE WEBSITE IS WWW.CHERRYBLOSSOM.ORG):
Frank McNally
Media Coordinator
703-801-2566 (cell); 703 572-4040 (d); 540-338-5648 (e)
Phil Stewart
Event Director
301-320-68650
Contact Frank McNally for race-day media
credentials. Space on media trucks (one for the men’s race and one for the
women’s race) is limited, so call to ensure seating. TV crews should call in
advance to secure positioning for trucks on race morning.
John Korir Looks
to Extend His "Odd" Streak as 10,000 Runners Expected to Finish the
35th Running of the Credit Union Cherry Blossom Ten Mile
Bethesda’s Ben
Beach Entered for the 35th Time
WASHINGTON, DC – In a
year laden with tradition, Kenyan John Korir has some of it on his side as he
arrives in town for the 35th running of the Credit Union Cherry Blossom Ten Mile
in Washington, DC on Sunday, April 1. The event starts and finishes in West
Potomac Park in the vicinity of the FDR Memorial at 7:55 a.m. and is the Road
Runners Club of America National 10 Mile Championship.
Korir, 31, who has won
nearly every major non-marathon road race on the U.S. circuit during a
remarkable career that has spanned nearly a decade, has competed here five times
and won the race three times – all in the odd-numbered years of 2001, 2003 and
2005. He placed 2nd in 2002 and 3rd in 2000. "John is certainly a strong
threat to continue his odd streak," said Event Director Phil Stewart,
"but he faces some formidable competition from a pack of runners who are
not about to concede that since it is 2007 it must be a ‘Korir Year.’"
Should he win again, he would join Bill Rodgers as the only four-time winner.
Rodgers won the race in consecutive years between 1978 and 1981.
Runners taking aim at
Korir include countryman Simon Arusei, who finshed 10th in the highly
competitive World Cross Country Championships in 2006, and two Ethiopian stars,
Solomon Tsige, who has a 13:30.46 best for 5,000 meters and Tesfaye Tola, who
has run a 2:06:57 marathon. For the fourth year, two Japanese runners, Takahashi
Takeshi and Kouji Kageyama, are here from the Feb. 11th Himeji Castle 10 Mile in
Himeji, Japan, the "sister" race of the Credit Union Cherry Blossom.
Takeshi placed 3nd at Himeji in 46:59, and Kageyama has a 10 mile personal best
of 47:46.
Two strong American men are also in the mix.
Fernando Cabada, who a year ago was a nearly unknown runner out of Virginia
Intermont College before he broke the American 25K record last May and finished
the year with a 2:12:27 at the Fukuoka Marathon in Japan in December, will be
joined by Chris Graff, the 2001 USATF 10,000-meter champion and the 2003 USATF
10 mile champion. The top American male will be invited to compete in the 2007
Himeji Castle 10 Mile.
Click
Here for full details on the Elite Men,
including recent bios.
Ethiopian Teyba Erkesso heads up an international
and wide-open women’s field. Russian Alena Samokhvalova, who owns a 10K track
PR of 31:12.57; Romanian Lidia Simon, 2000 Olympic marathon silver medalist and
third at Cherry Blossom last year; and Russian Tatyana Petrova, fourth in 2004
and training locally in Germantown, Md., are also title contenders.
Click
Here for full details on the Elite Women,
including event bios.
The elite runners will compete for $32,000 in prize
money and an additional $3,000 in time bonuses, the event’s largest purse
ever. The first place male and female will earn $6,000 with an extra $750 bonus
added on if the male runs sub-46:00 and the woman runs sub-52:00. The event is
the only world-class running event in Washington and is part of the Professional
Road Running Organization circuit.
In honor of the 35th
running, Event Director Phil Stewart has invited back a number of past race
winners, including former South African, now U.S. citizen, Colleen DeReuck, who
set a world record of 51:16 at the 1998 race; three-time champion Lisa
Rainsberger (‘85, ’89, ’90); Jon Sinclair (’87); Rodgers (’78, ’79,
’80, ’81); Carl Hatfield (’75, ’76); and Kathrine Switzer of Boston
Marathon fame and the first women’s champion in 1973. These former champions
will receive bib numbers with the year of their first win. All runners in the
2007 field who better the winning times from the 1973 race (51:22 for men and
71:19 for women) will receive special commemorative mugs emblazoned with "I
would have won this race in 1973!"
With the race being contested in the nation’s
capital, a number of political leaders are entered, including newly-elected
Mayor Adrian Fenty, Congressman Tom Davis (R-Va.) and Congressman Jim Marshall
(D-Ga.).
Bethesda runner Ben Beach will participate in his
35th consecutive Cherry Blossom race; he is the only runner to have finished
every year. Beach, 57, ran 1:12:56 last year prior to finishing his 39th
consecutive Boston Marathon later in the month.
The event, which filled its 10,000-runner field in
a matter of days last December, draws runners of all abilities to participate in
what is known as "The Runner’s Rite of Spring" in the Nation’s
Capital. Event Director Stewart takes pride in the event’s $850,000
contribution to the Children’s Miracle Network, of which at least $400,000
will go to Washington, DC’s own Children’s Hospital. The event is not
subsidized by Washington, DC taxpayers, and the scenic course does not intrude
on either the city’s churches or commercial life.
The title sponsoring Credit Union Miracle Day
Committee is a partnership of Credit Unions and affiliated organizations. More
than 600 Credit Union members have volunteered and over 4,500 entrants are
Credit Union members.
Supporting sponsors include Gatorade, Gryphon
Technologies, Navy Federal Credit Union, and Metro Run & Walk.
Entries for the Ten
Mile and the 5K Run-Walk are closed. Spectators are encouraged to view the event
in the vicinity of West Potomac Park near 23rd and Independence Ave., SW. Kids
12-and-under can participate in a 1K Kids Run which is still open. Parents can
register their children in West Potomac Park at 7:15 a.m. on Sunday. The run
starts at 8:20 a.m. There is no entry fee.
The Credit Union Cherry
Blossom Ten Mile Run is part of the 2007 National Cherry Blossom Festival from
March 31 to April 15. The race will be televised on local ABC affiliate WJLA
Channel 7 in a half-hour special at 12 noon on Saturday, April 7th .
For additional information visit www.cherryblossom.org,
send an e-mail to racedirector@cherryblossom.org,
or contact the race hotline at 301-320-3350.
####
|
