FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Kipyego Seeks Minnesota Double At Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon
USA Masters Championship Features Three-Time Champion Hussein
St. Paul, MN (September 28, 2011) In Sunday's 30th annual Medtronic Twin
Cities Marathon, top male and female marathoners from across the globe will
race for winners' checks of $15,000 and chance to earn an additional $25,000
by establishing a new record on the scenic run from downtown Minneapolis to
St. Paul.
In addition, the fastest masters runners in America – runners 40-years-old
and older – will again race for the USA Masters Marathon titles, and $7,500
winners' checks, on their trek from the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome to the
foot of the State Capitol. The fleet open and masters runners will lead
12,000 marathon participants in the 30th edition of the "The Most Beautiful
Urban Marathon in America®."
In the men's marathon, 2011 Grandma's Marathon champion Christopher Kipyego
of Kenya will try to become only the second male runner in history to win
Grandma's and the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathons in the same year.
Kipyego, who won the closest finish in Grandma's history in June with a
personal best 2:12:15, would earn a $10,000 bonus if he can match Andrew
Musuva's double win from 1999. Kipyego can expect a strong challenge from a
group of his own countrymen, including Julius Koskei, who has run 2:10:14,
and Coon Rapids-based John Njoroge, who finished third in the 2009 Medtronic
Twin Cities Marathon and who has a PR of 2:10:00.
The battle for the women's Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon could turn out to
be a battle between Russia's Nedezdha Leonteva and Kenya's Doreen Kitaka.
Leonteva has run a 2:31:57 marathon and has twice been a medalist at the
Russian marathon championships. Kitaka, who is also based in Coon Rapids,
has run 2:32:00 for the distance and finished fourth at Grandma's Marathon
in June. Other contenders include Truphena Tarus of Kenya, Elena
Nagovitsyna of Russian, and American Emily Harrison of Flagstaff, Ariz.
In the USA Men's Masters Championships, two-time Medtronic Twin Cities
Marathon champion Mbarak Hussein of Albuquerque, N.M., returns to the Twin
Cities in hopes of winning his fourth career USA Masters Marathon crown.
His two outright Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon wins came as a masters
runner, and last year, the Kenyan-born American citizen, who ran 2:08:12 for
a marathon in 2004, earned a third USA Masters title at Twin Cities
finishing 7th overall. Tracy Lokken of Marquette, Mich., the 2007 and 2009
USA Masters champ, Matt Sandercock of Exton, Penn., the third-place master
last year, and Bob Weiner of Evergreen, Colo., the fourth-place master last
year, could also challenge.
The USA Women's Masters Championships appears wide open with the late
scratch due to injury of four-time USA Masters titlist Susan Loken of
Phoenix, Ariz.. Hoping to fill Loken's speedy shoes on the masters victory
stand are Shannon McHale of West Simsbury, Conn., who set her marathon
personal best of 2:40:36 at Twin Cities in 2009, Sheri Piers of Falmouth,
Maine, a 16th-place finisher at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, and
Joanna Zeiger of San Diego, Calif, an Olympian for the United States in 2000
in the triathlon.
The Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon offers prize purses of $56,500 each for
open men's and women's runners. An additional $33,050 each will be awarded
to male and female runners in the USA Masters Marathon Championships. In
order to earn the course record bonus of $25,000, male runners must top Phil
Coppes' course record of 2:10:05 set in 1985 and women must better the
record of 2:26:50 shared by Zinaida Semenova (2001) and Irina Permitina
(2004).
About Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon Weekend The Most Beautiful Urban
Marathon in America® celebrates its 30th running in 2011. Held the first
weekend in October, the three-day weekend celebration of fitness begins on
Friday, September 30 with the Health & Fitness Expo. Saturday includes the
TC 10K, TC 5K Run/Walk, Medtronic TC Family Events and a pasta dinner.
Sunday features the weekend's premiere races, the Medtronic Twin Cities
Marathon and the Medtronic TC 10 Mile. Medtronic is the title sponsor of
marathon race weekend events.
About Twin Cities In Motion Twin Cities In Motion, (formerly Twin Cities
Marathon, Inc.) is the non-profit organization that organizes over a dozen
running events throughout the year, including the Medtronic Twin Cities
Marathon, as a community service for the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. Visit
tcmevents.org for more information.
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