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From David Monti
© 2006 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com
With a strong finish on a pleasantly chilly night in New York City's Central Park, Thomas Morgan of ZAP Fitness clinched his first victory of 2007, winning the 28th annual Emerald Nuts Midnight Run in 18 minutes and 31 seconds, just three seconds off of the course record. Morgan, 25, was the first of about 5000 runners to cross the finish line in the annual four-mile road race organized by the New York Road Runners which celebrates the New Year at the stroke of midnight.
"I kicked it home," said Morgan a former star at the University of Kentucky, who reeled in Demesse Tefera, a locally-based Ethiopian who runs for the Westchester Track Club, in the final 600 meters. He won by four seconds.
"We went out a little slow and then tried to push it at the end," said Morgan. "We were really moving at the end."
Morgan, who has a 5000m personal best of 13:40.55, was able to defeat 11 athletes from the Brooks Hansons Distance Project who had come to New York not only to run the race, but to preview the Olympic Marathon Trials course. The Trials will be held in Central Park on Nov. 3, 2007. Luke Humphrey was the top Hansons finisher in third place (18:45), and Hansons athletes Chad Johnson (18:47), Clint Verran (18:47) and Jeff Gaudette (18:52) swept the next three places.
"The weather was great and this was awesome," said Humphrey, who was 11th in Boston and 18th at LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon this year. "This was my first time in New York and I can't wait to come back for the Trials."
Aziza Aliyu, a 21 year-old Ethiopian who, like Tefera, runs for the Westchester Track Club, got a four-second victory over Stephanie Pezzullo of ZAP Fitness. Aliyu was timed in 21:56, well off of Amy Rudolph's 2004 course record of 21:16. Pezzullo's ZAP teammate, Allison Grace, finished third 22:21. Like Morgan, Aliyu used a late-race surge to get the win, using her familiarity with Central Park to her advantage.
"I didn't know where the finish line was and she came up from behind me with about 50 yards to go," said Pezzullo who ran for Penn State University before joining the ZAP Fitness program.
Morgan and Aliyu each earned $600 in prize money and time incentive bonuses. Tefera and Pezzullo each earned $400, while Humphrey and Grace pocketed $300 apiece.
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