AT&T Austin Marathon To Hold International Team Challenge in 2008 By David Monti (c) 2007 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved December 14, 2007
Organizers
of the AT&T Austin Marathon have decided that their 2008 event,
scheduled for Sunday, February 17, will employ a unique international
team challenge format for the first time. Co-ed squads from the USA,
Canada, Great Britain, and Mexico will compete for $33,000 in team
prize money. Teams of two men and two women will be scored based on
the best three finishers by gender based only on place (cross country
scoring); finish time will not factor into the scoring.
Each team will receive a small appearance fee and prize money will be paid to teams as follows: $15,000-10,000-5,000-3,000.
Teams
will be organized by each country's federation. The USA team will be
selected by the men's and women's long distance running committees of
USATF based on the following selection criteria:
Men's At-Large
Selections: Two (2) positions will be offered (based on rank order of
finish) among sub-2:20 finishers at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials
Men's Marathon held on November 3, 2007; final position(s) will be
offered based on a list of performances from January 1, 2007 through
November 18, 2007.
Women's At-Large Selections: Two (2)
positions will be offered based on a time list of sub-2:47 marathon
performances from January 1, 2007 through November 18, 2007.
Interested USA athletes or their representatives should contact Jim Estes, USATF Senior Manager of LDR/Marketing, at Jim.Estes@usatf.org or 317-713-4661 for consideration BY DECEMBER 21.
