Posted: June 18, 2004

Athletics: Kastor Headlines USA Women’s Half-Marathon Championship Field

INDIANAPOLIS- This weekend’s 2004 USA women’s half-marathon championship in Duluth, Minnesota will be led by Deena Kastor, America’s top female distance runner. The race starts at 6:15 a.m., on Saturday, June 19 and follows the same route as the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon.

Entering the half marathon, Kastor has a personal record time of 1:10:08, the fastest time going into the race. A total of 70 women, all who have run under 1:22:00 will toe the starting line on Saturday including the 2004 USA 25K champion Debbi Kilpatrick-Morris, 1999 USA marathon champion Kim Pawelek, Deeja Youngquist (4th last year), Susannah Beck (5th last year) and Rachel Kinsman.

All those participating in the championship will compete for a prize purse that goes ten deep in the Open division and three deep in the masters division totaling $28,000, with $6,000 going to the USA champion and time incentive bonuses starting at sub-1:16:00. The top three finishers in the competition will automatically qualify for the World Half-Marathon Championship in New Dehli, India on October 3, 2004.

For more information, visit www.usatf.org.