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By Jeff Watson, Running USA wire
NEW YORK - (September 30, 2006) - With 400 meters to go in Saturday's 26th Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile, Canadian Kevin Sullivan found himself in the midst of an infamous New York City traffic jam.
Twenty blocks worth of NYPD barricades and traffic detours had left New York's central thoroughfare devoid of the city's famous taxi cabs, but with barely a minute of running left in the race, a yellow-clad Sullivan was forced to work his way through a field of world-class middle distance runners that often stretched three and sometimes four runners abreast with the type of reckless abandon only an NYC cabbie could love.
Charging full-bore to the finish line, Sullivan finally broke free of the crowd with just steps remaining to claim victory in a time of 3:55 (converted from 3:54.1).
New Zealander Nick Willis and Americans Matt Tegenkamp and Adam Goucher followed in quick succession as the top four finishers came across within a second of each other.
After crossing the finish line with his arms extended a massive smile of equal parts surprise and joy came to Sullivan's face. The hectic victory was only fitting for the two-time Olympian who arrived at his hotel in New York City just hours before race time. Sullivan had just flown in from Indiana, where he watched his wife's University of Illinois women's cross country team place fifth at the Notre Dame Invitational on Friday evening.
As if his last minute flight Saturday was not enough, Sullivan was still shaking off jetlag from traveling halfway around the world from China where he placed eighth in the 1500 at last Saturday's Shanghai Golden Grand Prix.
"I knew I was fit coming in," Sullivan said. "But I didn't know how the travel was going to affect me. I just wanted to put myself in the mix and if I was feeling good I would try to do something special in the final 100."
After a conservative start in last year's race, Sullivan was more aggressive this year as he hung with the pack through the race's first downhill 400 meters just seconds behind last year's third-place finisher Elkanah Angwenyi of Kenya.
Angwenyi hit the 400m mark in 56 seconds and at one point had a lead of up to 10 meters, but Sullivan led the chase pack uphill to the course's halfway point and the field was in tact as they clocked a 1:58 800m split.
Not much changed until the pack crossed 1200 meters in 2:56 and Russian Aleksandr Skvortsov made a hard surge from the outside.
"There were a number of guys surging in that final part." Sullivan said. "[Skvortsov] surged, then [Anthony Famiglietti] surged, then Matt came up and Willis went by. It was tough"
Willis, who captured the 1500m title at the Commonwealth Games in March of this year, was surprised at just how competitive things got in the race's closing stages.
"If you would have bet me that we could have picked up the pace any faster than we were going in the final 400m, I would have said no way," he said. "But people kept pushing it even harder."
For his victory, Sullivan picked up a $4000 prize check and just in case he did not get enough travel in this past week, he was also awarded 70,000 OnePass frequent flier miles from Continental Airlines.
Sara Hall knocks out field with last minute surge
While the men's race was a slugfest that went down to the wire, Team Running USA's Sara Hall used one giant knock-out punch of a move to clear herself from New Zealand's Kim Smith, New Jersey's Erin Donahue and the rest of the elite women's field.
Content to let Smith and Donahue tussle over the race's final quarter mile, Hall bided her time before surging with 200 meters to go and sprinting to victory in 4:28.
"Going in I knew I wanted to make a move at a point where I was confident I wouldn't be passed back," Hall said. "So when Kim and Erin were still running strong with 400 to go, I just tried to use their momentum. When I finally did make a move I wanted to make it big so I went hard and swung a little wide to make it harder to respond."
Hall's end-of-the race turnover proved to be too much for Smith, a 2004 Olympian and self-proclaimed long distance specialist, who led the majority of the race and was forced to fight off surges from both Donahue and Hall in the race's final portion.
"When I saw Erin come on the one side, I went a bit harder," Smith said. "But then I saw Sara come from the other side, and after going out in 64 I didn't have enough in my legs to respond."
Smith did have enough left to hold on for second in a time of 4:31 while Donahue followed on her heals for third in 4:32.
Throughout the race's first half, the field remained tightly bunched as Smith and Americans Lauren Fleshman and Carrie Tollefson did the majority of the pace work.
At the halfway point, Smith drove the first wedge into the tight group with a slight surge that caused the field to stretch.
At the three quarters mark, Donahue asserted herself in the race with a surprisingly hard challenge on the outside that only Smith and Hall could cover.
Like Sullivan, Hall received $4000 for her victory and 70,000 airline miles from Continental Airlines, but more importantly she brought a close to what she described as an "up-and-down" year with a victories in both Saturday's race and the USA Road 5K Championship on September 17th that can give her confidence for things to come.
"There has been both good and bad things this year," said the former Stanford standout. "But we are just so happy to have the opportunity to train with Team Running USA and to have people like the New York Road Runner's to put on races like this."
26th Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile - New York, NY, Saturday, September 30, 2006
MEN
1) Kevin Sullivan, Canada, 3:55, $4000
2) Nick Willis, New Zealand, 3:55, $2500
3) Matt Tegenkamp, USA / WI, 3:55, $1500
4) Adam Goucher, USA / OR, 3:56, $1250
5) Anthony Famiglietti, USA / NY, 3:56, $750
6) Aleksandr Skvortsov, Russia, 3:58
7) Grant Robison, USA / MI, 3:58
8) Gabe Jennings, USA / CA, 3:59
9) Hunter Spencer, USA / IN, 4:00
10) Nate Brannen, Canada, 4:00
WOMEN
1) Sara Hall, USA / CA, 4:28, $4000
2) Kim Smith, New Zealand, 4:31, $2500
3) Erin Donohue, USA / NJ, 4:32, $1500
4) Carrie Tollefson, USA / MN, 4:33, $1250
5) Roisin McGettigan, Ireland, 4:34, $750
6) Lauren Fleshman, USA / CA, 4:36
7) Janelle Deatherage, USA / MN, 4:37
8) Marina Muncan, Serbia, 4:37
9) Claudia Camargo, Argentina, 4:43
10) Megan Metcalfe, Canada, 4:44
Full results at: NYRR.org
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