FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
State's Fastest Marathoners to Race at Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon
Kenyans Dominic Ondoro and Sarah Kiptoo Headline October 4 Race
St. Paul, Minn. – September 3, 2015 – The professional fields at this
year's Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon will feature runners with the fastest
marathon times ever run on Minnesota soil: Kenyans Dominic Ondoro and Sarah
Kiptoo. The pair will join 12,000 marathoners who, a month from now, will
test themselves on the 26.2 mile route from downtown Minneapolis to the
State Capitol grounds in St. Paul on October 4.
Ondoro, who won the 2014 Grandma's Marathon in 2:09:06, breaking Dick
Beardsley's longstanding event and Minnesota record, will be challenged by
a field including Elisha Barno of Kenya, who edged Ondoro for this year's
Grandma's title.
Kiptoo ran her Minnesota-best marathon of 2:26:32 in Duluth in 2013, when
she set the Grandma's women's record. She will compete against a women's
field that will include reigning Grandma's women's champion Jane Kibii of
Kenya, who clocked 2:32:06 at the event this year.
Competitors in the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon will be racing for more
than $59,000 in open prize money, including a $10,000 winner's check and an
additional $25,000 event record bonus if the men's winner breaks Phil
Coppess'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. Complete professional fields will be announced on race week.
"We're pleased to attract runners with the credentials of Dominic, Elisha,
Sarah, and Jane to our event," Twin Cities In Motion Executive Director
Virginia Brophy Achman said. "I'm eager to see what they and the rest of
our professional field can accomplish on our course on race day. Perhaps
this will be the year one or both of our course records get broken."
The Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon runs from downtown Minneapolis to the
State Capitol grounds in St. Paul along the Mississippi River, lakes and
parkways that make the race "The Most Beautiful Urban Marathon in America®.
Further information and registration details can be found at tcmevents.org.
Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon Weekend kicks off on Friday, October 2 with
the Health & Fitness Expo at Saint Paul RiverCentre. The Expo, which runs
through Saturday, October 3, features more than 100 exhibitors, a full
schedule of presentations, and packet pick up for the weekend's races.
30,000 people are expected to participate in running events held Saturday,
October 3 and Sunday, October 4.
The Saturday Events at the State Capitol grounds in St. Paul include the TC
10K, TC 5K, presented by Fredrikson & Byron, and the Medtronic TC Family
Events. The Medtronic TC 10 Mile, host of the 2015 USATF Men's and Women's
10 Mile Championships, which starts in downtown Minneapolis and finishes at
the Capitol, kicks off Sunday racing which is followed by the signature
event of the weekend, the 34th annual Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon. For
the 25th straight year, the marathon will host the USATF Masters Marathon
Championships for runners 40 and older.
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