DEFAR LEADS TOP WOMEN'S FIELD IN LONDON 5-K By David Monti (c) 2007 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved September 11, 2007
Reigning
Olympic and world 5000m champion, Meseret Defar, leads a top-notch
field at Sunday's Hydro Active Women's Challenge in London's Hyde Park,
a 5 km road race. The 23 year-old Ethiopian is also the world record
holder for both 5000m on the track (14:16.63) and 5 km on the road
(14:46).
"Naturally we are very pleased to have the world and
Olympic 5000m champion Meseret Defar, fresh from her victory in Osaka
heading up our elite field in London, the UK's premier 5-k women's road
running event," said Dave Bedford who directs the race. Bedford is
also the race director of the Flora London Marathon.
Bedford has
also invited a strong group of challengers to face Defar, led by
Australia's Benita Johnson, America's Lauren Fleshman, Russia's Inge
Abitova, and Britain's Jo Pavey and Liz Yelling.
This will be
the tenth edition of the Challenge which organizers said had 20,000
entrants last year. The course record of 14:51 was set by Paula
Radcliffe in 2003.
The London race is just one of three
Challenges which will be held in Britain on Sunday. Separate races
will also be held in Birmingham and Liverpool. Tegla Loroupe of Kenya
will lead the field in Birmingham, where she hopes to defend her title,
while Karolina Jarzynska of Poland is the favorite to take the title in
Liverpool.