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News05 Nov 1999


Tegla Loroupe wins Abebe Bikila Award

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Tegla Loroupe wins Abebe Bikila Award
Reuters

5 November 1999 – New York - Tegla Loroupe, who broke her own women's world marathon record by running 2:20:43 in Berlin last month, was named the winner of the Abebe Bikila Award on Wednesday for global contributions to long distance running.

Loroupe, who won the New York City Marathon in 1994 and 1995, will be presented with the trophy for the New York Road Runners award Saturday at the International Friendship Run at the United Nations one day prior to the city's 30th marathon.

Loroupe is the third consecutive female winner of the Bikila Award, following 1998 winner Rosa Mota (the 1988 Olympic gold medal marathoner from Portugal) and 1997 honouree Lisa Ondieki (the Australian who still holds New York City's course record of 2:24:40).

In Berlin, Loroupe, the 85-pound (38.5 kg) West Pokot tribeswoman from Kenya, lowered by four seconds the standard she had set in Rotterdam in 1998 and became the first woman to break her own world marathon record since Grete Waitz did so in 1980. Just one week after her record setting in Berlin, Loroupe went to Palermo, Sicily and came away with her third straight world half-marathon championship. And she won her second world track & field championships bronze medal in the 10,000 metres in Seville this summer.

Loroupe is not entered in Sunday's New York City Marathon, and would not normally be expected to run another 26.2-mile race so soon after her record in Berlin. But her durability and frequent roadracing had prompted speculation she might line up nevertheless at the start on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

She downplayed that prospect on Wednesday, claiming "I’ve had a long season, I don't want to kill myself."

However, Anne Roberts, the co-ordinator for the elite runners in the New York City Marathon and a close confidante of Loroupe’s, said the Kenyan's participation in Sunday's race was 'still a possibility."

Now 26 and based in Detmold, Germany, Loroupe first made her mark in the marathon with her debut in New York City in 1994. Her victory in 2:27:37 made her the first African woman to win a major marathon. In 1995, she triumphed again in 2:28:06, making her the first woman to repeat as champion in New York City since Grete Waitz in 1986. Loroupe, who enjoys considerable celebrity status in New York road racing circles, also won her fourth mini marathon 10K title in the city on May 22.

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