Posted: August 9, 2007

Athletics (RWire): 2004 Olympic Silver Medalists Keflezighi, Ndereba to Race at 35th Falmouth Road Race

Prize purse over $90,000; Keflezighi debuts; Ndereba goes for 4th title FALMOUTH, Mass. - (August 8, 2007) - 2004 Olympic Marathon silver medalists Meb Keflezighi of Mammoth Lakes, Calif. and Catherine Ndereba of Kenya are set to run at the 35th CIGNA Falmouth Road Race on Sunday morning, August 12. The scenic waterfront seven-mile course winds from Woods Hole to Falmouth Heights. A field of 10,000 is expected, and prize money totaling $90,300 will be paid to the top international and U.S. finishers including $10,000 to each race champion. Keflezighi will be challenged by the world's top ranked 10,000 meter runner, Micah Kogo of Kenya, and three-time Falmouth champion John Korir, also of Kenya. Kogo, 21-years-old, ran a 2006 10,000m best of 26:35.63. This year, he also ranks first on the 10K road list (27:07). Last year's top two U.S. finishers, Edwardo Torres of Boulder, Colo. and Peter Gilmore of San Mateo, Calif. and 2007 Pan Am Games 5000 meter champion Ed Moran of Williamsburg, Va. will also be near the front as well as Kenyan Olympian and 2006 race runner-up Tom Nyariki and countryman Nicholas Kamakya who won the recent Utica Boilermaker 15K and finished third at the Peachtree 10K on July 4. Ndereba, three-time Falmouth winner, headlines a women's field that will include Edna Kiplagat of Kenya, third last year, Romanian Luminita Talpos, who was fourth, 2007 Pan Am Games 10,000 meter gold medalist Sara Slattery of Boulder, Colo. and Victoria Jackson of Tempe, Ariz., seventh last year. Keflezighi, 32, will be making his debut in Falmouth, but the Team Running USA athlete has plenty of international experience. Born in Eritrea in East Africa, he moved with his family to California when he was 12. He became a U.S. citizen in 1998 and starred for four years at UCLA. His impressive credentials include the Olympic Marathon silver medal at the Athens Games, when he became the first American man to win an Olympic medal in the event since Frank Shorter's silver in Montreal in 1976. Keflezighi has also finished second and third at the ING New York City Marathon and was third in the 2006 Boston Marathon. He holds the U.S. 10,000 meter record at (27:13.98) and has won 16 USA titles (track, roads and cross country). A Falmouth victory by Keflezighi - who has raced well and placed 4th at Bix 7 and Beach to Beacon 10K over the past two weekends - would also mark the first for a U.S. man since Mark Curp of Missouri won in 1988. With the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials scheduled for November in New York, Keflezighi, a two-time Olympian, is looking for a fast Falmouth finish to be a springboard to his fall training and a berth on the U.S. Olympic team for Beijing. In recognition of its 35th running, this year's race will also include the first Falmouth champions from 1973, David Duba of Mt. Pleasant, Mich. and Jenny (Taylor) Tuthill of Alexandria, N.H. In addition, four former champions who helped stamp Falmouth as a showcase race will again be running: six-time champion and 1984 Olympic Marathon gold medalist Joan Benoit Samuelson; three-time champion and Hall of Famer Bill Rodgers; two-time champion and 1972 Olympic Marathon gold medalist Frank Shorter and Falmouth's first non-U.S. winner, 1972 Olympic medalist and New York Marathon champion Rod Dixon of New Zealand. For more race information, go to: FalmouthRoadRace.com. Ryan Lamppa, Running USA Media Director (805) 696-6232; Fax = (805) 659-0016 Ryan@RunningUSA.org www.RunningUSA.org. Subscribe to the Runner's Web Weekly Digest