Who Won Our 2017 Running Warehouse Worlds Prediction Contest? A Londoner, a Guy from Portugal, and a Guy Who Used to Manage the Guam Track Team
by LetsRun.com
August 30, 2017
The drug tests are in and everyone is clean on our end, so it’s time to announce the big winners from Worlds, the winners of the 2017 LetsRun.com Running Warehouse Worlds Prediction Contest.
We love playing in our contests, but we love announcing the winners even more as we get to highlight the interesting people who make up the LetsRun.com community. We’ve had pro runners, rocket scientists, 13-year-olds, and even ourselves win our contests.
Andrew giving Amherst XC some positive news
For London 2017, the overall winner was 47-year-old Andrew Cleminshaw, who lives outside of Cleveland.
Andrew is now a teacher who tries to explain “the fine points of running fandom” to his 9-year-old daughter, and he’s got a cool history with the sport. Andrew made the most of his “mid-pack abilities” running for four years at Amherst College, where he was captain of the XC team. Then he moved to Guam and joined Guam’s version of the OTC, the Guam Running Club. Being a big fish in a small pond was great as Andrew got to be manager of the Guam national track team at the 1994 Micronesian Games.
After two years in Guam, Andrew returned stateside and taught English and track in California and Ohio. Now he does enough running to not embarrass himself in his age group of the local Dad’s Day Run and clearly he stays abreast of the sport as he picked three events at Worlds perfectly and winners in 17 events to win the contest by 1 point.
Andrew chose the Hoka One One Clifton 4
Andrew wins a $100 RunningWarehouse Gift Certificate and the Hoka One One shoe of his choice. He chose the Hoka One Clifton 4.
2nd Placer Inspired by Portuguese Greats
We had to go to the tiebreakers to determine second and third placers as there was a four-way tie for second. Coming in second was Nuno Sebastião, 43, of Torres Vedras, Portugal. We’re pretty sure Nuno is our first winner from mainland Europe in a contest. Nuno is a fitting second place finisher as he took up the sport in 1987 and was inspired by some of the Portuguese greats. It’s amazing what a force Portugal was in the 1980s. Carlos Lopes was the 1984 Olympic marathon champ and three-time World XC Champ, Fernando Mamede was the world-record holder at 10,000 (27:13) from 1984-1989, António Leitão was the 1984 5,000m bronze medallist, and Rosa Mota was a World, Olympic, Boston, London, and Chicago Marathon champion. Pretty unbelievable.
Nuno in Berlin (for a pic of him in NYC click here)
Nuno ran 8:42 for 3000m but stopped running when he went to college. He picked it up nearly 20 years later and ran 9:43 for 3000 at 40. Now he wants to run all six major marathons and has already run NY and Berlin, but came up just short of breaking 3:00.
We said we were going to limit the prizes to Americans this time, but Nuno found the RunningWarehouse European store and wants to run in the Hoka One One Arahi shoes, so we’re going to make sure he gets them. Now Europeans and Americans can get the unbelievable customer service from Running Warehouse.
Jack a champion for all of Great Britain
From Not Running at All to Wanting to Go Sub-2:30 in the Marathon
Our third placer Jack Brotchie, 32, was born in and lives in London, so it’s fitting he came out on top of the London contest. Jack also showed running dreams can start later in life. He started running a week before his 30th birthday after never having done any sport, and now he’s addicted to the club running scene in the UK (he’s a member of the Herne Hill Harriers, founded in 1889), and hoping to break 2:30 in the marathon by 2018/2019.
Jack also showed he’s quite intelligent by finding LetsRun.com. “No idea how I found the site but it’s incredible. Lawless and absurd but peerless. Well done,” he said.
Jack’s main picking strategy was to not pick all the US favorites. We can’t knock the strategy because it worked. For his Hoka One One shoe, Jack wants the Hoka One One Tracer 2.
Remember There is One Place That Stands Out to Buy Your Shoes Online RunningWarehouse.com
Thanks to RunningWarehouse.com for sponsoring our contest and all of our contests the last few years, along with Hoka One One for providing the shoes. RunningWarehouse.com is the leader in online running retail for a reason.
Congratulations to all of our winners and to everyone who played in our contest.
If you played in the contest and want to check your scores, use the form below. If you want to see the top 30 leaderboard, click here.