Posted: June 8, 2005

Athletics: Loroupe Doing 5000M/10-K Double This Week

From David Monti

© 2005 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

The former world record holder for the marathon, Tegla Loroupe, will travel thousands of miles this week to tackle a track/road double.

She left Detmond, Germany, yesterday with her long-time manager, Volker Wagner, to drive to Ostrava in the Czech Republic. She plans to run the 5000m at the Golden Spike meeting there tomorrow night.

On Friday, she flies from Europe to New York City where she will compete at the Circle of Friends New York Mini 10-K on Saturday, the oldest all-women's road race in the world. She's won the Mini five times, and a victory in New York over a world class field would break her tie with Grete Waitz for the most victories at the Mini.

"Tegla is one of the legends in the sport," said Mary Wittenberg, President and CEO of New York Road Runners. "She made her name right here in New York in 1994 when she became the first African woman to win a major marathon and now more than a decade later, she can break even more new ground by winning a sixth Mini crown."

Loroupe won the Mini in 1993, '96,'97, '99 and 2000.

Lining up against Loroupe will be over a dozen of the world's best distance runners, including Lornah Kiplagat of the Netherlands, Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia, Benita Johnson of Australia, Masako Chiba of Japan and Margaret Okayo of Kenya for the 34th running of the Mini.