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Lead Stories: Sunday, September 7, 2008

Top Women’s Mile On Tap at New Balance Games in NYC

Posted January 16th, 2008 at 10:35 AM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, High School

carmen douma-hussar Saturday’s New Balance Games at the Armory Track and Field Center here will feature a top women’s mile, a tasty appetizer for the great middle distance races which will follow at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games and the Millrose Games over the next two weekends. There are also invitational miles for men, and high school boys and girls.

Race director Ian Brooks has assembled a strong international women’s field, and nobody has more experience running the mile on the Armory’s fast 200m banked Mondo track than Canadian Carmen Douma-Hussar [Pictured]. She will be making her sixth start in this event since 2002. She won the race in 2005 and has only once finished lower than third.
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Letherby, Begley Win 71st Manchester Road Race

Posted November 22nd, 2007 at 9:25 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results

andrew letherby nyrr healthy kidney 10k Andrew Letherby of Australia and Amy Begley of Beaverton, Ore., won today’s 71st running of the Manchester Road Race in Manchester, Conn.

For the 34 year-old Letherby it was his second Manchester victory. He also won the 4.78 mile race in 2002, and remains the only Australian to race to victory at Manchester. His time today of 21:54 was nine seconds faster than his 2002 winning mark, but only one second up on Irishman Martin Fagan who took second.

U.S. steeplechaser Brian Olinger of Westerville, Ohio, took third in 22:00, while defending champion, Ian Dobson of Mammoth Lakes, Calif., was fourth in 22:03.
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Top Talent Headed to Thursday’s Manchester
Road Race

Posted November 22nd, 2007 at 10:00 AM by David Monti

Section: News & Results

America’s most venerated Thanksgiving Day running race, the Manchester Road Race, will celebrate its 71st edition on Thursday in Manchester, Conn., with some top talent at the front.

In the men’s race, last year’s champion Ian Dobson, the former Stanford star, will try to become the first American to defend his title at Manchester since steeplechaser John Gregorek won two in a row in 1988 and ‘89. In cold and rainy conditions last year, Dobson prevailed by just one second over Canadian Simon Bairu.

Dobson’s key competition will likely come from a pair of Ethiopian Olympians, Dagne Alemu and Girma Tola. Alemu has won three consecutive races since winning the York White Rose Run on Nov. 11; Tola won the Baltimore Half-Marathon on Oct. 13 and the Boston Mayor’s Cup Cross Country on Oct. 28. Also in the mix will be 2002 Manchester champion, Andrew Letherby of Australia; New Zealand Olympian Michael Aish; Canadians Reid Coolsaet and Dylan Wykes; Irishman Martin Fagan; steeplechasers Dan Huling and Brian Olinger; and milers Rob Myers and Grant Robison.
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Shalane Flanagan to make rare road racing appearance

Posted August 17th, 2007 at 3:03 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

Flanagan_Shalane USA record holder at 5000m, Shalane Flanagan, will make a rare road racing appearance at the CVS Caremark Downtown 5-K scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 16, in Providence, R.I. The race will host the USA 5-K road running championships for both men and women.

Flanagan, 26, is in the midst of the best year of her career. In January, she smashed the USA indoor record for 3000m at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games with a sizzling 8:33.25 clocking. She followed-up with an American record for 5000m at last April’s Mt. SAC Relays (14:44.80). Flanagan also dominated the 5000m at the AT&T USA Outdoor Championships last June in Indianapolis, winning by about 17 seconds. She’s now preparing for the IAAF World Championships in Athletics where she will compete in the 5000m.

The CVS Caremark Downtown 5-K will only be Flanagan’s second road racing appearance. In 2006, she ran the Manchester Road Race in Manchester, Conn., and won by three seconds over Ireland’s Mary Cullen.

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Dibaba has sights set on Defar’s record

Posted May 31st, 2007 at 5:29 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

Tirunesh Dibaba, the double world champion at 5000m and 10,000m in Helsinki two summers ago, is looking to take a bite out of the Big Apple by attacking Meseret Defar’s world 5000m record at Saturday’s Reebok Grand Prix on Randall’s Island.

At last year’s meet with the track still puddled from heavy rains, Defar mustered a 61.5 second closing lap to cross the finish line in 14:24.53, toppling Elvan Abeylegesse’s world record by 15/100ths of a second. Dibaba, who set the world indoor 5000m record of 14:27.42 at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games last January, would like nothing more than easing aside her compatriot to have both the indoor and outdoor world records next to her name, instead.
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