FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Four USA Championships at Stake at Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon
$25,000 Prizes Await Men's and Women's Marathon Winners
St. Paul, Minn. - October 2, 2013 - Marathoners will race from Minneapolis
to St. Paul on Sunday with four USA Championships at stake as Sunday's 32nd
annual Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon plays host to the USA Men's & Women's
Marathon Championships and the USA Masters Marathon Championships for
runners 40 and older.
Competitors in the USA Men's & Women's Championships will be racing for
$145,000 in prize money, including $25,000 for the winners, plus an
additional $25,000 course record bonus should the men's champion break Phil
Coppess's men's mark of 2:10:05 set in 1985 or the women's winner betters
the record shared by Zinaida Semenova (2001) and Irina Permitina (2004) at
2:26:51.
An intriguing group of men's title challengers - including three
naturalized Americans of Kenyan descent - will face 2010 Medtronic Twin
Cities Marathon and 2010 USA Champion Sergio Reyes (Palmdale, Calif.) in
their quest for a USA Championship crown. Shadrack Biwott (Folsom, Calif.),
the third-place finisher at the USA Half Marathon Championships in June,
Joseph Chirlee (Colorado Springs, Colo.), a veteran with a 2:12:10 marathon
best, and Josphat Boit (Mammoth Lakes, Calif.), the USA 25K runner-up in
May, will seek their first USA title. Other likely contenders include
Timothy Ritchie (Brighton, Mass.), fourth at the USA Half Marathon
Championships, and Nicholas Arciniaga (Flagstaff, Ariz.), a veteran with a
2:11:30 marathon to his credit.
In the competition for the USA Women's Championship, Richfield's Meghan
Peyton, the recent winner of the USA 20K Championship, will face a balanced
field of challengers including Atalelech Asfaw (Albuquerque, N.M.), an
Ethiopian-born American with a personal best of 2:33:56, Wendy Thomas
(Windsor, Colo.), the 12th-place finisher at the 2012 Olympic Marathon
Trials, Esther Erb (Richmond, Va.), the 7th-place finisher at last year's
Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon, and Minnesotan Michelle Lilienthal
(Minneapolis), who finished fourth at the 2006 Medtronic Twin Cities
Marathon.
Reigning USA Half Marathon champion Adriana Nelson, previously announced in
the USA Women's Championship field, has withdrawn from the competition.
In the USA Master Championships, which the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon
is hosting for the 23rd straight year and where winners will earn $7,500
for their efforts, defending men's champion Uli Steidl (Seattle, Wash.) is
expected to battle 2012 runner-up Malcolm Campbell (Marietta, Ga.) for the
title. The men's field also includes two-time Medtronic Twin Cities
Marathon champ Mbarak Hussein (Albuquerque, N.M) and three-time USA Masters
Marathon champ Tracy Lokken (Marquette, Mich.) and American masters
10,000-meter record holder Kevin Castille (Nicholasville, Ky.)
Among the masters women, Olympian Elva Dryer, a 2:31 marathoner who has not
raced in a major competition since 2009 appears to be the main competition
for 2012 USA Masters runner-up Sheri Piers.
Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon Weekend kicks off on Friday with the Health
& Fitness Expo at RiverCentre in St. Paul. Activities continue on Saturday
with the TC 10K, presented by TomTom, the TC 5K Run/Walk, presented by
Fredrikson & Byron, and the Medtronic TC Family, all held on the State
Capitol grounds in St. Paul. The weekend culminates with the 15th running
of the Medtronic TC 10 Mile and the 32nd annual Medtronic Twin Cities
Marathon on Sunday.
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