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News24 Oct 2000


USA Team Selected for World Half Marathon Championships

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USA Team Selected for World HalfMarathon Championships
USATF Running Wire

19 October 2000 - Indianapolis - USA Track & Field announced last week the USA Team for the 9th IAAF World Half-Marathon Championships to be hosted by Veracruz, Mexico, on Sunday, November 12. Here are the five-member USA men and women's teams with half-marathon PRs:

Jeff Campbell, 29, Brevard, NC 1:06:09 ('00)
Jerry Lawson, 34, Jacksonville, FL 1:01:43 ('98)
Teddy Mitchell, 28, Alamosa, CO 1:06:20 ('00)
Todd Reeser, 27, Canandaigua, NY 1:04:13 ('00)
Clint Verran, 25, Rochester Hills, MI 1:04:53 ('00)


Kristin Beaney, 28, Wayland, MA 1:14:16 ('97)
Kelly Cordell, 30, San Luis Obispo, CA 1:12:04 ('99)
Kelly Keeler, 38, Bloomington, MN 1:13:20 ('00)
Milena Glusac, 25, Fallbrook, CA 1:14:33 ('00)
Shelly Steely, 38, Albuquerque, NM 1:13:33 ('98)

Team leaders are Will Lindgren (Cypress, TX) and Max Mayo (Hilton Head, SC).

Like the past eight editions, individual and team competition (accumulative time by the top three individuals) should be keen. Along with individual and team titles, there is also $194,000 in prize money ($40,000, $20,000, $15,000, $10,000, $7000 and $5000).

At Veracruz, Kenya, Japan, Romania, Ethiopia, South Africa, Spain, Portugal and Italy are expected to send top teams. Veracruz is located on Mexico's east coast. The course is flat and fast with three loops of 7K.

Last year in Palermo, Italy, Kenyans Paul Tergat and Tegla Loroupe won world titles. Tergat, despite avoiding an errant official near the finish line, edged South Africa's Hendrick Ramaala; both were timed in 1:01:50. South Africa repeated as team champion. Scott Larson of Boulder, Colorado was the top American in 41st place (1:04:14). The U.S. team placed 10th.

Loroupe, one of most complete female distance runners ever, won her third consecutive world half-marathon title with a convincing 24 second victory over Japan's Mizuki Noguchi, 1:08:48 to 1:09:12. With three women in the top five, the Kenyan women easily repeated as team champion. Top American, Michelle Byrne of Richardson, Texas finished 40th (1:15:55). The U.S. women's team also placed 10th.

At the championships, the best U.S. individual and team placements are: Bill Reifsnyder, 18th (1:02:00, '92) and Gordon Bloch, 14th (1:11:34, '92) and Lynn Doering, 14th (1:11:54, '95) and the 1992 women's team 5th (3:35:32) and the 1996 men's team 8th (3:13:52).

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