2010 Fifth Avenue Mile Recap And Results: Shannon Rowbury And Amine Laalou Cap 2010 Seasons With Wins In New York

by: LetsRun.com
September 26, 2009
*Photo Gallery

The 5th Avenue Mile is the end of the season for a lot of track and field runners and while some in Sunday's field will be continuing on to the Commonwealth Games, Shannon Rowbury and Amine Laalou ended their seasons with wins in New York. Women's recap first, then men's.

Women's Race: Rowbury Times It Perfectly

Shannon Rowbury knows how to run on Fifth Avenue in New York. She showed that on Sunday by timing her kick perfectly to repeat as Fifth Avenue Mile Champion, overtaking Erin Donohue in the final ten meters.

Donohue, dumped by Rowbury's coach John Cook last year, has had a tremendous 2010 (1:59.99 for 800m) and she almost capped it off with a 5th Avenue Mile victory. She, like many before her, however, just slightly misjudged her kick and was overtaken in the final ten meters.

The pace was a modest 2:16 (estimated split) the slightly uphill first 800m and Donohue was in the lead picking up the $1,000 prime. The pace would only quicken on the downhill to the finish. 1,200m was in roughly 3:20 (Carmen Douma-Hussar in the lead) and then Donohue started making her bid for home. At 200m from the finish, she opened a gap on the field. 200m is a long way to sprint and Rowbury took advantage of that. With 100m to go, Rowbury was still in fifth (Donohue still had a couple of meters gap on the field with Sara Hall, Morgan Uceny, Hannah England and Rowbury in close pursuit) with Donohue still out in front. Rowbury, however, saved it all for one final perfect kick. Donohue put up a game fight, but roughly ten meters from the finish, Rowbury overtook Donohue and held off Hall as Donohue slipped to third.

Afterwards, Rowbury told the NYRR, "To be honest, I thought Erin had it at the end." She said however she had learned to look at the signs put out that say there is 200m to the finish and then 100m to the finish. Obviously pleased with her repeat win, she said, "I love this race; it's such a fun way to end the season."

1 31 Shannon Rowbury 26 San Francisco CA USA Nike 4:24.12
2 40 Sara Hall 27 Mammoth Lakes CA USA Asics 4:24.34
3 34 Erin Donohue 27 Haddonfield NJ USA Nike 4:24.40
4 42 Hannah England 23 Birmingham Great Britain Nike 4:25.29
5 39 Molly Huddle 26 Providence RI USA Saucony 4:25.92
6 33 Morgan Uceny 25 Mammoth Lakes CA USA Reebok 4:26.27
7 43 Amy Mortimer 29 Kansas City MO USA Reebok 4:27.07
8 35 Carmen Douma-Hussar 33 Ardmore PA Canada New Balance 4:27.53
9 36 Elisa Cusma Piccione 29 Modena Italy Nike 4:28.50
10 41 Treniere Moser 28 Knoxville TN USA Nike 4:28.84
11 37 Nicole Edwards 24 Ann Arbor MI Canada Saucony 4:29.14
12 50 Gabriele Anderson 24 Minneapolis MN USA Brooks 4:30.95
13 47 Heather Dorniden 23 Minneapolis MN USA Team USA Minnesota 4:31.05
14 48 Hilary Stellingwerff 29 Le Mont sur Lausan Canada New Balance 4:32.06
15 44 Megan Wright 28 Morgantown WV Canada New Balance 4:35.28
16 45 Liz Maloy 25 Washington DC USA New York Athletic Club 4:37.06
17 49 Aziza Aliyu 24 Bronx NY Ethiopia West Side Runners 4:37.84
18 46 Brenda Martinez 23 Alamosa CO USA New Balance 4:46.36

Women's Race Replay (race starts 2:45 in if you want to scroll there):

Men's Race: Amine Laalou Gets Some Respect

If Amine Laalou didn't have your respect before now, hopefully he does now, as he ran 3:52.83 to defeat a star-studded field at the 5th Avenue Mile.

Laalou had the fastest 800m (1:43.71) and 1,500m (3:29.53) this year in the field. He made the finals of the 800m and 1,500m at last year's World Championships. Yet heading into the 5th Avenue Mile, all the talk was on which American would win the race.

After a slow (over 2:00) uphill opening 800m, the real running began. Former NCAA champ Alistair Cragg, who ran a half marathon last weekend, threw down the gauntlet the third quarter, opening up a ten-meter lead at 1,200m, figuring the only way he was going to win the race was to steal it.

The field behind him, however, had too much talent and savvy to let that happen. They caught Cragg with 200m to go and all the main contenders (Laalou, double world champ Bernard Lagat, last year's champ Andy Baddeley, Alan Webb, Leo Manzano, Nick Willis) were all there ready to go all out to the finish. Lagat had the lead but Laalou was positioned perfectly on him and they would battle it out the final 100m. Laalou passed Lagat the final 20 meters and got the win.

Lagat held on for 2nd, Baddeley closed well for 3rd, Webb was a very respectable 4th, Manzano didn't quite have his great last 100m and was 5th, and Nick Willis, who had been in great position with 100m to go, was 6th.

Afterward, Laalou dedicated the victory to his 15-day-old daughter.

Alan Webb told the AP, "I give myself a C-plus for the day. I have come a long way this year. It's good just to be in the mix and competing with these guys again." He also added to the WSJ, "In the final stages I didn't really commit like I wanted to."

1 3 Amine Laalou 28 Rabaat Morocco Nike 3:52.83
2 2 Bernard Lagat 35 Tucson AZ USA Nike 3:53.30
3 1 Andy Baddeley 28 London Great Britain New Balance 3:53.34
4 6 Alan Webb 27 Portland OR USA Nike 3:53.72
5 4 Leonel Manzano 26 Austin TX USA Nike 3:54.17
6 5 Nick Willis 27 Ann Arbor MI New Zealand Reebok 3:54.81
7 9 Will Leer 25 Eugene OR USA Oregon TC Elite 3:55.02
8 7 Tom Lancashire 25 Manchester Great Britain Nike 3:55.22
9 8 David Torrence 24 Berkeley CA USA Nike 3:55.43
10 11 Adrian Blincoe 30 Bryn Mawr PA New Zealand New Balance 3:56.07
11 14 Garrett Heath 24 Palo Alto CA USA Saucony 3:56.15
12 17 Daniel Huling 27 Geneva IL USA Reebok 3:56.77
13 22 Pedro Antonio Esteso 33 Madrid Spain Strands.com 3:56.96
14 10 Haron Lagat 27 Lubbok TX Kenya New Balance 3:57.43
15 12 Taylor Milne 29 Guelph ON Canada New Balance 3:58.05
16 15 Tim Bayley 28 Lafayette CA Great Britain Puma 3:58.29
17 18 Alistair Cragg 30 Mammoth Lakes CA Ireland adidas 3:58.59
18 21 Abiyot Endale 24 Bronx NY Ethiopia Westchester TC 4:02.41
19 20 Sean Brosnan 33 Wantagh NY USA Mizuno 4:04.92
20 19 Jon Rankin 28 Seattle WA Cayman Islands MarathonGuide.com 4:12.06

Men's Race Video Replay (race starts 4:25 in if you want to scroll there):

More Coverage: *NYRR Recap *Full Results
*AP Recap

*Photo Gallery

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