Posted: November 21, 2005

Athletics: Korir, Radcliffe Selected as Road Racers of the Year by Running Times

Abdirahman, Kastor Top U.S.

Running Times magazine has named John Korir of Kenya and Paula Radcliffe of Great Britain as its 2005 Road Racers of the Year in its January/February 2006 issue (on sale December 6).

Just one point separated Korir and runner-up, Gilbert Okari also of Kenya. "That seems appropriate," said Jonathan Beverly, Running Times editor, "as both had remarkable years."

Korir started the year with a six-race winning streak, stretching from the November 2004, Lagos International Half Marathon to the June 2005, Bellin Run in Green Bay, WI, with stops in Puerto Rico, Washington DC, Spokane, WA and Guatemala. During that year, he defeated Okari three times, as well as several other runners in the top 10.

Okari, for his part, started his own six race win streak at the Peachtree Road Race and kept it going through the August 21 Abraham Rosa 10K, with victories at Utica, Bix 7, Beach to Beacon and Falmouth. He defeated Korir at four of those.

Okari lost the Road Racer of the Year at the wire based on two races. In March at the World's Best 10K, Korir won and Okari placed seventh. Then seven months later, Okari returned from a Kenyan stay to run the World Half-Marathon Championships in Edmonton on October 1 and placed 25th. That sealed the #1 spot for Korir.

As with the two top men, little separates the two top women in the Running Times' Road Racers of the Year. Both had stellar years, and both could easily be considered the #1 road racer. Unlike the top men, however, Paula Radcliffe and Lornah Kiplagat rarely raced each other; in fact, their last meeting came at the 2004 ING New York City Marathon, which falls in the October 2004 to October 2005 race window for these rankings. In the Big Apple, Radcliffe won and Kiplagat was seventh.

Top Americans selected by Running Times were two-time Olympians Abdi Abdirahman of Tucson, AZ and Deena Kastor of Mammoth Lakes, CA. Abdirahman's highlight of the year may have been on Labor Day in New Haven when he ran 58:42 to break Meb Keflezighi's 2-year-old U.S. 20K record in spite of going off course twice and dodging a minivan in the last mile.

Kastor, 2004 Olympic bronze medalist and a Team Running USA athlete, won the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon (2:21:25) and the Jefferson Hospital Philadelphia Distance Run (1:07:53, U.S. half-marathon record) and also set a U.S. 8K record (24:36) last March in Chicago.

Rankings were calculated over a period from mid-October 2004 to mid-October 2005. Data and analysis for Running Times rankings were done by Ken Young, the Analytical Distance Runner, ARRS.net. Details on how Running Times ranks runners plus weekly updates are available at RunningTimes.com.

Running Times, headquartered in Wilton, CT, is a national magazine (founded in 1977) known as "the runner's best resource". With readership of close to 400,000, it is the publication turned to for accurate analysis of competition, and shoe and other essential equipment buying decisions.

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.