Posted: May 23, 2005

Athletics: Mottram Motors to Healthy Kidney 10K Victory

Athens Silver Medalist Keflezighi Third

By Jim Gerweck, Running USA wire

NEW YORK - (May 22, 2005) - Although in the short two dozen years he's been alive Craig Mottram has accomplished a lot, including making two Olympic teams, the young Australian had never visited New York City.

He rectified that oversight on Sunday morning, taking a running tour of Central Park, and doing what most tourists never can - leaving the Big Apple with more money in his pocket than when he arrived ($7500).

Mottram, 24, pulled away from a strong international field of challengers, including the first two finishers from last fall's ING New York City Marathon, over the last half of a rolling 10K loop of Central Park to win the inaugural Healthy Kidney race in 28:28, the second fastest time ever recorded on the course. But for a conservative opening 4:53 mile, he might have eclipsed the 28:10 course record set by Paul Koech at the Trevira Twosome in 1997, but as far as Mottram was concerned, that can wait for another time.

"I think you can run really fast on this course if you're aggressive," he said. "My goal today was to win, and get in a solid workout before the track season begins."

The lanky Aussie cemented his win by pulling away from South Africa's Hendrik Ramaala and Team Running USA's Meb Keflezighi on the downhill just before three miles, and continued unchallenged, save an errant baby carriage that sent him scooting onto the curb, en route to a 23 second victory.

"The easiest way to win is to win early," he said in explaining his strategy. "If either of those guys had caught me, I figured I had enough speed to outkick a couple of marathoners."

Mottram actually took the lead a mile before his decisive move, covering a surge by Ramaala, who knew he was no match for Mottram's 12:55 track 5000 speed. "I tried to intimidate him a bit by surging a few times, but he wouldn't take the bait."

Acknowledging that first place was settled, Ramaala and Keflezighi waged a virtual replay of their final miles duel from the November 2004 marathon on the same roads, with Ramaala emerging with a one second margin.

Keflezighi, 30, who was forced to withdraw from April's Flora London Marathon with injury problems, was pleased with his first race of 2005.

"The injuries are healed, 100 per cent," said the Mammoth Lakes, Calif. resident. "I'm just not really fit yet. I started doing tempo runs last month, and my first interval workouts were last week."

After a stellar 2004 on the roads, which included three second place finishes in major marathons (Olympic Trials, Olympic Games and ING NYC), Keflezighi will focus more on the track this summer, beginning with defending his 10,000m title at next month's nationals.

"I don't think I'll race on the track before then, but I've followed that plan before and it's worked," he said.

His ultimate goal is to add a medal from the Helsinki World Championships 10,000 to go with his silver from Athens.

On an overcast, 55 degree day, 4,139 finished the race, sponsored by the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates, GE and Lockheed Martin. All proceeds benefit the National Kidney Foundation.

Healthy Kidney 10K - New York, Central Park, NY, Sunday, May 22, 2005

1) Craig Mottram, Australia, 28:28, $7500
2) Hendrick Ramaala, South Africa, 28:51, $5000
3) Meb Keflezighi, USA/CA, 28:52, $2500
4) John Itati, Kenya, 29:12, $1500
5) Patrick Ivuti, Kenya, 29:14, $1000
6) Mark Carroll, Ireland, 29:18, $750
7) Keith Kelly, Ireland, 29:19, $500 
8) John Henwood, New Zealand, 29:29, $250

For complete results, go to: NYRR.org.

Ryan Lamppa, Running USA Media Services Director
385 Oak View Lane
Santa Barbara, CA 93111

(805) 696-6232, fax (805) 967-5958
Ryan@RunningUSA.org
www.runningusa.org.