5/23/08
By David Monti
(c) 2008 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved - used with permission
Teams from the USA will be taking on strong challengers at Monday's DICK’S Sporting Goods
BolderBOULDER 10-K's 11th International Team Challenge, traditionally the top road race in the United
States on Memorial Day. The race, which is held in Boulder, Colo., and has over 50,000 entrants, will
be run for the 30th time.
Olympic Trials marathon champions Ryan Hall and Deena Kastor lead their respective American squads, backed up by Jorge and Edwardo Torres, and Elva Dryer and Colleen De Reuck. For both Hall and Kastor, the race will be their first since finishing important marathons last April. Hall ran a sparkling 2:06:17 personal best at the Flora London Marathon, finishing fifth, while Kastor won the Olympic Trials in Boston. Both athletes will run the Olympic Marathon in Bejing.
On the men's side, the Americans will face strong challenges from the Moroccan team, led by the
red-hot Ridouane Harroufi, who has already notched two victories and two second place finishes in
USA road races this season. He's also the BolderBOULDER defending champion. His teammates will be
the veteran El Arbi Khatabi and last year's Wharf to Wharf 6 Mile champion, Karim El Mabchour.
The Kenyan team boasts one of the sport's winningest road racers in history, John Korir, teamed up
with MacDonald Ondara and Charles Munyeki. The British Commonwealth team could also make the
podium, featuring John Yuda of Tanzania, Andrew Letherby of Australia (a Boulder resident), and Julius
Kibet of Kenya.
Powerful teams from Romania and Japan will give the American women a run for their money. The Romanian team consists of marathon stars Constantina Tomescu-Dita, Lidia Simon and Luminita Talpos. Ditto for the Japanese team with Yuri Kano, Kiyoko Shimahara and Hiromi Ominami Takami Ominamii. All of these athletes train in Boulder.
Male and female teams are scored using cross country scoring with three athletes scoring per team.
The Ethiopians and Americans went 1-2 in both the men's and women's races last year. Ethiopia
scored 13 points in both races while the American men scored 20 and the women 22.
This year's International Team Challenge will not be held separately from the mass race as it has
for the past ten years. Instead, the pros will line up with everyone else from a common start.
They will be competing for a $110,600 prize money purse (awards are paid for both individual and
team performaces), plus newly introduced time bonuses and primes at the one mile and four mile
points on the course.
Boulder's high altitude (1631m/5351 ft.) makes achieving fast times difficult. It's interesting
to note that both Hall and Kastor will actually be coming down from the higher altitude of Mammoth
Lakes, giving them a potential advantage. Kastor has won the race three times, in 2001, '02 and
'03.
The course records for the traditional point-to-point course were both set by Kenyans in 1995:
27:52 by Josephat Machuka and 32:13 by Delillah Asiago.
ENDS
