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Teleconference with Ryan Hall and Dathan Ritzenhein Scheduled Wednesday, Feb. 13 (see below)
SAN DIEGO, Calif. Feb. 12, 2008 – The race to qualify for the American women’s team at the World Cross Country Championships figures to be tightly contested when a range of America’s top female runners representing distances from the marathon to the mile gather at San Diego’s Mission Bay Park for the USA Cross Country Championship.
The USA Cross Country Championships are scheduled February 16 over a looped course at Mission Bay Park. A series of seven races begins with the Road Runner Sports Community 4K at 9 a.m., and culminates with the Open Women’s 8 kilometer race at 1:15 p.m. and the Open Men’s 12 kilometer race at 2:00 p.m.
The top six women - and first nine men – from the Open races will qualify for the American team that will compete in next month’s IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Edinburgh, Scotland. National champions also will be crowned in Master’s races and Junior’s events, where spots will be on the line for national teams. And, USA Cross Country team champions also will be determined at Mission Bay.
The Women’s Open features standouts such as Shalane Flanagan, the reigning American 5,000-meter outdoor champion and holder of the U.S. indoor 3,000-meter record. It also has attracted long-distance specialists such as 2004 Olympic Trials Marathon champion Colleen De Reuck and track specialists such as American 3,000-meter steeplechase record holder Lisa Galaviz.
“The Women's race brings together a talented field who compete in varying distances in Track and Cross Country and should be exciting, particularly on the looped course that is ideal for spectators at Mission Bay," said co-meet director Paul Greer.
Flanagan, born in Boulder, Colorado, attended the University of North Carolina, earning NCAA All-American honors 15 times. She quickly made a name for herself in international running when she qualified for the U.S. 2004 Olympic team at 5,000 meters in a gutsy Trials run in which she went out fast, then hung on to finish third.
Flanagan advanced all the way to the Olympic semi-finals in the 5,000, where she finished 11th. Then, she was sidelined with an injury that took months to diagnose. Finally, it was determined that she had been born with an extra bone in her foot.
The mystery solved, Flanagan rebounded with her trademark aggressiveness. She turned the 2005 U.S. 5,000-meter championship into a personal time trial by leading start to finish and ending up well clear of the field in a U.S. leading time of 15:10.96. She added the 2005 USA 4-kilometer cross country title to two national NCAA cross country titles won in 2002 and 2003. She won the 2007 USA 5,000-meter, again leading in wire-to-wire fashion. And, she chopped almost six seconds off Regina Jacobs’ American record in the 3,000 meters at the 2007 Reebok Boston Indoor Games, winning in 8:33.25.
Meanwhile, De Reuck returns to elite distance running after the birth of her second daughter, Tara, on July 4, 2007. The former South African has competed in four Olympic Games, has won the USA Cross Country Championship twice (2004 and 2005), captured a bronze medal in the 2002 World Cross Country Championships, and has a long list of other honors. At age 43 and attempting a comeback after a long layoff, she is not sure exactly what to expect Saturday at Mission Bay, but no one is counting her out.
Galaviz comes to San Diego off an American record-setting effort in the women's 3,000 meter steeplechase at the 2007 KBC Night of Athletics in Heusden-Zolder, Belgium. Hooked into a fast race, Galaviz, the former Arizona State University standout, finished fourth, but ran 9 minutes 28.75 seconds, besting the old AR or 9:29.32, set in 2004.
Meanwhile, the Junior field is spiced with names familiar in San Diego because of their performances at the annual Foot Locker National Cross Country Championship in Balboa Park each December, along with some of the top young collegiate runners in the nation.
In the Women’s Junior field, Jordan Hasay returns to a city where she won the national Foot Locker crown in 2005 and finished third here this past December. Hasay, from San Luis Obispo, is defending her title in the USA Women’s Junior Cross Country Championship. She is expected to contend along with Stanford’s Alex Gits, second in the USA Juniors 5,000-meters, and Kauren Tarver, a four-time Foot Locker national finalist.
On the Men’s Junior side, defending champion Elliot Heath of Stanford returns. He’ll face a field that includes California’s German Fernandez, third in the 2007 Foot Locker Boys’ National Championship; the University of Virginia’s Emil Heineking, the Atlantic Coast Conference freshman of the year; and the University of Colorado’s Matthew Tebo, a member of Team USA’s 2007 World Cross Country squad.
More information about the USA Cross Country Championships in San Diego is available online at USATF.org, or by contacting co-meet directors Paul Greer (paul@hipstars.com) or Thom Hunt (thunt@sdccd.edu).
Hall, Ritzenhein, to be featured on February 13 teleconference
USA Track & Field will host a national teleconference on Wednesday, February 13 at 4:00 p.m. ET (1:00 p.m. PT) featuring top contenders for the USA Cross Country Championships to be held Saturday in San Diego, Calif.
Ryan Hall and Dathan Ritzenhein, both members of the U.S. men’s squad for the 2008 Olympic Marathon, will discuss their preparations for the championships and earning a spot on the USA Cross Country squad for the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Edinburgh, Scotland.
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