Where Your Dreams Become Reality
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Where Your Dreams Become Reality |
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Handicap Tightened for LA Marathon "Challenge" By David Monti (c) 2005 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved LOS ANGELES (03-Mar) -- Last year's City of Los Angeles Marathon produced a seemingly bizarre result: a 49 year-old women was declared the overall winner and took home a whopping $79,000 in cash plus a Honda automobile worth over $25,000. This was all made possible by the introduction of the "Challenge," a time handicap format where the elite women were given a headstart of 20 minutes and 30 seconds ahead of the elite men. Tatiana Pozdnyakova, a Ukranian who holds multiple world masters records, ran an incredible 2:30:17, beating the next women by some three and one half minutes. More importantly, she crossed the finish line three minutes and 54 seconds ahead of David Kirui, the winning man, who ran 2:13:41. Conditions were warm, which helped explain the slow times. This year, when Pozdnyakova lines up to defend her title, she'll have a tougher job, but a bigger prize to shoot for. The "Challenge" division winner will receive a $75,000 bonus this year, up from $50,000 last year, meaning the winner will receive exactly $100,000 in cash plus a car. However, the time gap has been narrowed considerably to 15 minutes and 50 seconds, taking away four minutes and 40 seconds from the cushion they enjoyed last year. Organizers pointed to significantly higher television ratings to bolster their argument to continue the "Challenge," claiming that their local television broadcast generated higher ratings than the ING New York City and LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathons, combined. Purists derided the "Challenge," but mass audiences found this form of reality TV to their liking, underscored by the fact that Pozdnyakova was old enough to be Kirui's mother. The gap was adjusted to take into account the relative strength of the men's and women's fields in this year's race, organizers said. Russian Lyubov Denisova, second and third, respectively, at the last two editions of the ING New York City Marathon, is capable of running much faster than Pozdnyakova, who turns 50 tomorrow. With a 2:25:18 personal best time on the difficult New York course, the top man in the field would have to run 2:09:28 to beat Denisova if she equalled her personal best. Interestingly, that is very similar to what Simon Bor ran in 1999 when he set the still-standing event record of 2:09:25. Bor is entered in Sunday's race, along with fellow Kenyans Benson Mbithi, Simon Wangai and Matthew Birir. Kerryn McCann of Australia and Zivile Balciunaite of Lithuania are the other top women entered. The overall prize purse for the 20th City of Los Angeles Marathon is over $300,000, including the value of the Honda automobiles the winners will receive again.
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Cross Country Spikes 10% off Injured?
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