News20 May 2006


Mottram breezes to victory, but narrowly misses Central Park 10 km record

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Craig Mottram and Mohamed Farah at the end of the 2006 Healthy Kidney 10km (© Courtesy New York Road Runners)

Defending champion Craig Mottram ran away from the field to keep his Healthy Kidney 10K crown on Saturday in convincing fashion but the victory was a bittersweet one for the Australian Olympian as he failed by just three seconds to set a Central Park 10K record and collect a $10,000 record bonus.

Running virtually alone from the the two mile mark, Mottram finished in 28:13, coming up 3 seconds short of the Central Park mark set by Kenyan Paul Koech in 1997.

"The goal here was first and foremost to win and the record was an added bonus, "said Mottram. "I was 15 seconds faster than when I won last year, so those things were good and I can't be too disappointed."

Grabbing the lead early, Mottram pushed forward and was on record setting pace through the halfway mark at 14:05.

"I knew I was on the pace but it was a lonely second half of the race," said Mottram, the Commonwealth Games silver medallist at 5000m.  "I could have done it with someone out there with me, because it can be quite disorientating out there in the park on your own. Itis a long way around the park."

The longest part might have been the final uphill 400 meters when Mottram put on a strong 66 second closing sprint in his record bid. But Mottram promised to keep coming back for the record, a chore made a bit more appealing after New York Rad Runners officials announced that the race sponsor, the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates was raising the course record bonus for next year to $15,000.

"I'll just have to come back and try again next year," said Mottram.

Not all was lost on the day as Mottram prolonged his streak of 10-K road race victories to 12 stretching back to 2001.  He also won this third consecutive road race in New York City; in addition to his Healthy Kidney victory last year, he also won the Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile last September.

Mottram's training partner, Mohamed Farah of England, passed both Linus Maiyo of Kenya and early front runner Anthony Famiglietti of the United States in the second half to finish second in a personal best 28:37.  Famiglietti was third in 28:40 and Maiyo fourth in 28:46. Mohamed Amyn of Morocco was fifth in 29:01.

Richard Finn for the IAAF

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