News24 Oct 2005


Smith and Shoemaker take the honours in traditional cross country season opener

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Kim Smith wins the 16th Annual Mayor’s Cup Cross Country in Boston (© Victah Sailer)

Boston, USANew Zealand Olympian Kim Smith took an impressive victory over a water logged 5km course at the 16th Annual Mayor’s Cup Cross Country Races at Boston’s Franklin Park on Sunday (23).

Aiming at Melbourne and Fukuoka

With a race time temperature of 45-degrees and on muddy rain-soaked turf, Smith posted a gun to tape win (16:35) in her first professional cross country race at Franklin Park, where she last competed in her final year at Providence College when winning the Big East Championships. She went on to win the NCAA championships last year.

The 23-year old Smith was a late entrant, having done 85 miles of training this week, but Coach Ray Treacy recommended the race as more of a workout than a competition and Smith obliged. As it turned out, Smith’s only competition was herself as she won comfortably, 21 seconds ahead of training partner and current Providence College standout Mary Cullen, of Ireland (16:56).

Smith’s current training is geared toward the Manchester (Conn.) Thanksgiving Day Road Race, after which time she will prepare for next year’s Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia (15 - 26 March 2006) and the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Fukuoka, Japan (1 - 2 April 2006).

Triathlete wins men's title

In the men’s 8km, the Boston Athletic Association’s Jarrod Shoemaker, 23, a professional Triathlete, a sport in which he is the current U-23 World champion, was supposed to run the lower-profile Franklin Park 5k in preparation for a scheduled international triathlon in Cancun, Mexico next weekend.  However, Hurricane Wilma had Cancun in its path and Shoemaker’s plans needed to change. Shoemaker ended up winning the race in 24:23, beating runner-up Kyle King by five seconds. Shoemaker was an All-Scholastic for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (Lincoln-Sudbury High School) and is ranked 50th in the world at the Olympic ITU distance. He continues to reside in Sudbury, Mass.

Of his race, Shoemaker said: “I could tell which guys were having trouble running though the mud. I had an eye on the track runners around me, and I knew that the longer the race went, the better off I’d be. This is cross country the way every course should be! “

Jack Flemming (BAA) for the IAAF

Results

Men (8km)
1 Jarod Shoemaker USA 24:23
2 Kyle King USA 24:23
3 Vinny Mulvey IRL  24:23               

Women (5km)
1 Kim Smith NZL  16:35             
2 Mary Cullen IRL 16:56                                     
3 Alemtsehay Misbanaw 17:33


MAYOR'S CUP HISTORY... Champions Year-by-Year

Year/athlete/club

MEN
2005 Jarod Shoemaker, BAA
2004 Mark Carroll, adidas
2003 Keith Kelly, New Balance
2002 Keith Kelly, New Balance
2001 Sandu Rebencuic, U.S. Army
2000 Francis Kirwa, Life University
1999 Sammy Nyamongo, Life University
1998 Francis Kirwa, Life University
1997 Silah Misoi, Life University *22:53
1996 Silah Misoi, Life University
1995 Seamus McElligott, ASICS Fleet Feet
1994 Abidi Bouazza, Westchester Track Club
1993 Brad Schlapak, NYAC
1992 Brad Schlapak, NYAC
1991 Andy Ball, NIKE Running Room
1990 Michael Baugh, HFC Striders

Year/athlete/club

WOMEN
2005 Kim Smith, Reebok
2004 Atalelech Ketema, Westchester Track Club
2003 Kate O'Neill, Nike
2002 Kristin Chisum, New Balance
2001 Priscilla Hein, Indiana Invaders
2000 Sarah Dupre, Boston Athletic Association
1999 Christine Junkermann, adidas Club Connecticut
1998 Lesley Lehane, Boston Athletic Association
1997 Kathy Franey, NIKE International *16:22
1996 Kate Fonshell, ASICS
1995 Lynn Jennings, NIKE International
1994 Lynn Jennings, NIKE International
1993 Carmen Troncoso, NIKE Texas
1992 Kathy Franey, Reebok Racing Club
1991 Gwyn Coogan, NIKE Boston
1990 Michelle DiMuro, Reebok Racing Club


* Mayor's Cup meet record.

 

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