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New York Road Runners puts up $25,000 bonus for 8K national record in addition to a total prize money purse of $35,000
New York,February 12,2007— Olympic and American distance running standouts Adam Goucher, Abdi Abdirahman, and Jorge Torres have entered the field for the 2007 USA Men’s 8K Championships in New York City’s Central Park on Saturday, March 17, 2007, it was announced today by New York Road Runners President and CEO Mary Wittenberg. The race course will cover the last eight kilometers (4.97 miles) of the route that will be used when NYRR hosts the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Men’s Marathon on Saturday, November 3, 2007.
All three runners competed this past weekend at the USA Cross Country Championships in Boulder, Colorado. Goucher placed second in 37:35 on the 12K course, and Torres was fourth in 38:07. Abdirahman had an off day, placing 21st.
“In 2007 we celebrate our nation’s best runners as the competition heats up at every distance,” said Wittenberg. “The male marathoners’road to Beijing goes through Central Park this year and the USA 8K Championships will serve as a tune-up on the course for many of the marathoners as well as a tune-up for a big year for our 5K and 10K runners. This championshipis a meeting in the middle of America’s best.”
NYRR is putting up a prize money purse of $35,000 including a first place prize of $10,000. Additionally, a $25,000 bonus will be awarded to the winning athlete who breaks the current 8K American record of 22 minutes, 4 seconds. Goucher, 31, of Portland, Oregon, will be running the USA 8K Championships for the first time. He was the 2006 USA Men’s 4K cross country champion as well as the 12K and 4K champion in 2000.
Goucher has his sights set on breaking the American 8K record, which was set by none other than his coach, running legend Alberto Salazar, in 1981.
Torres, 26, of Boulder, returns as the reigning USA 8K Champion, having won the title in 2005. An NCAA cross country champion at the University of Colorado, Torres was also the 2006 USA 10,000-meter champion.
Abdirahman, 30, of Tucson, has run the USA 8K Championships four times, finishing in the top five in 2005 (second), 2003 (third), and 2002 (fourth). In 2006 he placed fourth at the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon in 2:08:56, the second-fastest U.S. time for the year. NYRR previously hosted the USA 8K Championships from 2002 to 2005. The event was not held in 2006.
Today Goucher announced that his goal for the race will be to break his coach, Alberto Salazar's American Record.
“I want the record to be broken, “said Salazar, whose 22:04 AR for 8K has stood since 1981. “It is not good for the sport when a record stands as long as this one has. I would much rather see all of my records broken.
“Adam is very fit right now and with a little bit more speed work in the next few weeks and he will have a very good chance at breaking the record. In my mind there is no doubt that he could run 22:00.”
Said Goucher, “I am very excited about coming to run and just looking forward to getting out there and running fast."
In addition, in what caught most on the call a little bit off guard, Salazar and Goucher did not rule out the possibility of Goucher running in the Olympic Men’s Marathon Trials race in Central Park later this year on Saturday November 3rd. This would be Goucher’s debut at the marathon distance.
“I don’t like it when people set limits on what I can or can’t do and I don’t want to say I can’t run the marathon,” said Goucher.
Salazar, whose marathon debut was a win at the 1980 New York City Marathon while he was still an Oregon collegian, said, “I ran well in my marathon debut and so have many others so it has been shown that you can be successful at the marathon in the first time.
"With the Trials in the fall of this year you then have almost an entire year to recover to run the track Trials as well.”
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