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Chebii, Ponomarenko Win 9th Country Music Marathon
From Ian Monahan

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - (April 26, 2008) - Kenya's Sylvester Chebii, 26, won the ninth Country Music Marathon on Saturday in a time of 2 hours, 14 minutes, 27 seconds. In the women's race, Svetlana Ponomarenko, 38, from Russia beat Olena Shurkhno, 30, from the Ukraine, 2:30:33 to 2:33:37 over the defending race champion.

The rain, which dampened the pre-race morning, broke before the start gun fired to begin the race, yielding cool running temperatures for more than 30,000 runners and walkers.

A pack of ten professional men were first out on the 26.2-mile course. Russian Mikhail Khobotov, 35, attempted to push the pace after the 10K mark, but the men appeared content to preserve a conservative pace. At the half-marathon mark, the men were on a conservative 2:17:00 marathon pace. Augustus Kavutu of Kenya placed the first surge into the race after mile 14 as the pack ran along the banks of the Cumberland River, dropping Sergey Yemilanov from Russia and Ethiopia's Abebe Yimer.

The second surge came on the approach to mile 17 lead by Chebii and countryman Christopher Torotich. The lead pack, which included Ketema Nigusse of Ethiopia and Kenyan and eventual runner-up Meshack Kosgei, dropped the remaining men as the group ran the fastest mile of the race (4:53) through mile 19.

As the men exited Shelby Park towards the finish, outside LP Field, Nigusse faded and Chebii mounted his final attack on his opponents.

"It was a tough race, but I felt confident I could win in the final miles," said Chebii.

Ponomarenko's steady pace decimated her counterparts in the women's race from the first 5K to the finish line. By the 10K mark, she controlled an 18 second lead. By the half-marathon, she led by more than a minute and once she broke the finish line tape, she was more than three minutes ahead of her closest competitor Shurkhno.

"It was a perfect day and I really took advantage of it," said Ponomarenko through her interpreter and agent, Anbrey Baranov.

Ponomarenko ran unchallenged by her competitors and unchallenged by the course averaging a 5:40 per mile pace along her winning tour of Nashville.

9th Country Music Marathon
Nashville, TN, Saturday, April 26, 2008

MEN
1) Sylvester Chebii, 26, Kenya, 2:14:27, $17,500
2) Meshack Kosgei, 33, Marietta, GA (US), 2:14:55, $8000
3) Christopher Torotich, 27, Kenya, 2:15:18, $4000
4) Ketema Nigusse, 26, Ethiopia, 2:16:15, $2000
5) Benjamin Itok, 36, Kenya, 2:18:16, $1250

WOMEN
1) Svetlana Ponomarenko, 38, Russia, 2:30:33, $17,500
2) Olena Shurkhno, 30, Ukraine, 2:33:37, $8000
3) Anzhelika Averkova, 30, Ukraine, 2:35:36, $4000
4) Sharon Cherop, 23, Kenya, 2:39:52 $2000
5) Albina Gallyamova, 43, Russia, 2:40:23, $1250

Local Men - Davidson County
1) David Silvestri, 22, Nashville, 2:54:07, $1000
2) Wim Codington, 25, Nashville, 2:54:19, $500

Local Men - State of Tennessee
1) Phil Young, 45, Murfreesboro, 2:48:08, $1000
2) John Lovell, 50, Brentwood, 2:49:56, $500

Local Women - Davidson County
1) Maureen Manning, 40, Brentwood, 3:09:43, $1000
2) Emily Ryan, 30, Nashville, 3:17:01, $500

Local Women - State of Tennessee
1) Andee Cranford, 30, Mount Juliet, 3:04:26, $1000
2) Maureen Manning, 40, Brentwood, 3:09:43, $500

Men's Masters (40+)
1) Mark Green, 40, Canton, CT, 2:45:52, $500

Women's Masters (40+)
1) Albina Gallyamova, 43, Russia, 2:40:23

Complete results at: CMMarathon.com

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2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Women's Marathon Ends in Historic Fashion
Kastor first woman to win three U.S. marathon titles; 41 U.S. women set personal records; Olympians Somers Smith and Benoit Samuelson set U.S. age group records in Boston
From Jack Fleming, BAA

BOSTON - (April 25, 2008) - On a spectacular Sunday morning in Boston, the top female marathoners in the United States put forth an historic performance. Deena Kastor, Magdalena Lewy Boulet and Blake Russell headlined the April 20 show as they captured the three spots on the U.S. Olympic Team for the women's marathon. As a result, their next marathon will be run through the streets of Beijing on Sunday, August 17 as they compete in the 2008 Olympic Games. Behind the three Olympians, 143 other women thrilled the tens of thousands of spectators and viewers on NBCSports.com with one of the greatest women's marathons ever held.

Among the many notable accomplishments from the 7th U.S. Women's Olympic Marathon Trials:

ATHLETES
* 181 qualifiers (171 via a marathon performance, 10 via a 10,000m performance)
* 146 starters
* 124 finishers

Sub-2:50s
* 98 women ran under 2:50. This is the second largest total in the history of women's marathon running, trailing only the inaugural 1984 U.S. Olympic Trials when 109 women broke that mark.
* By comparison, 61 women broke 2:50 at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Women's Marathon. 44 did so in 2000; 71 in 1996; 46 in 1992 and 81 in 1988.

All-Time Rankings
* Deena Kastor and Magdalena Lewy Boulet ran the 2nd and 11th fastest Olympic Trials performances in U.S. history.
* Kastor's winning time of 2 hours, 29 minutes, 35 seconds is the 41st fastest marathon ever run by an American woman. She also owns the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 10th, 12th, 14th, 18th and 42nd fastest times.
* Lewy Boulet's runner-up time of 2:30:19 is the 53rd fastest marathon ever run by an American woman.

U.S. Age Group Records
* Linda Somers Smith (2:38:49) set a U.S. 45-49 record (previous mark, 2:42:28, Joan Benoit Samuelson).
* Joan Benoit Samuelson (2:49:08) set a U.S. 50-54 record (previous mark, 2:50:26, Shirley Matson).

Personal Records & Qualifying Performances
* 135 women qualified for the Olympic Trials by running a new personal best in the marathon (out of 171 women who qualified with a marathon time).
* 41 women ran new personal records on Sunday, including an impressive 13 of the top 15 and 20 of the top 26.
* Tera Moody - who finished 5th overall in 2:33:54 - led the PR parade with the biggest improvement: 12 minutes, 46 seconds.
* 47 women improved upon their qualifying performance for the event (including Blake Russell who qualified via a 10,000m time because she did not have a qualifying marathon performance).

USA CHAMPIONSHIPS
* Deena Kastor won her third USA Marathon title (2001 and 2007) and 25th USA title overall, and became the first woman since Linda Somers (1993-94) to win back-to-back national titles.
* Kastor became the first woman to win three U.S. titles in the marathon. Julie Brown (1976 / '83), Janis Klecker (1987 / '92) and Linda Somers each have won two.

OLYMPIC TEAMS
* Kastor joined Cathy O'Brien (1988 & 1992) as the only women to make two U.S. Olympic Teams in the marathon.
* This represented the first time that the first alternate from an Olympic Team (Blake Russell in 2004) has made the Olympic Team four years later.
* This was also the first time at the same Trials that the Olympic marathon team resided in the same state; in this case, California.
* The 4th and 5th place finishers from 2004 (Russell and Lewy Boulet, who finished just 35 and 53 seconds out of third place, respectively, in 2004) both made the Olympic Team this year.

WEBSITE USAGE
* 48,583 visitors to BostonTrials2008.com on race day.
* 360,968 race day page views.
* Visitors to the website were from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and more than 90 countries.

For complete Trials results, splits, photos and more, go to: http://bostontrials2008.com

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112th Boston Marathon is One for the Ages
Race available on-demand at WCSN.com for the next 12 months
From Jack Fleming, BAA

BOSTON - (April 25, 2008) - Twelve months after inclement weather threatened the 2007 Boston Marathon, Patriots' Day 2008 featured blue skies, mild temperatures, and record-breaking performances. Robert K. Cheruiyot and Ernst Van Dyk further established themselves as Boston legends, Dire Tune won possibly the most thrilling Boylston Street sprint the race has ever seen, and nearly 22,000 runners finished the second-largest Boston ever.

Fans can view the complete broadcast of the race free and on-demand at WCSN.com for the next 12 months thanks, in part, to the support of Official Race Sponsor adidas.

Among the many highlights of Monday's race:

* The totals of 25,283 entrants, 22,375 starters, and 21,963 finishers each rank as #2 all-time at Boston, trailing only the 100th running of the race in 1996.
* The total of 10,439 female entrants and 8,935 female finishers were both new Boston records.
* Robert K. Cheruiyot joined Clarence DeMar, Gerard Cote and Bill Rodgers as the only men to have won the Boston Marathon four times or more.
* Cheruiyot's winning time of 2 hours, 7 minutes, 46 seconds is the sixth fastest ever run on the course.
* Dire Tune (22 years old) became the youngest champion, male or female, since Joan Benoit (21 years old) in 1979.
* Tune's 2-second margin of victory over Alevtina Biktimarova is the closest finish in the history of Boston's women's division.
* Ernst Van Dyk's seventh victory in the men's push rim wheelchair division ties him with Clarence DeMar for most Boston Marathon titles for a man. They trail only Jean Driscoll, who won eight women's push rim wheelchair titles.
* The total prize purse of $796,000, funded by principal sponsor John Hancock, was a 38% increase from 2007. Both Cheruiyot and Tune received $150,000 for their victories.
* With his victory, Cheruiyot moves into second place, behind Martin Lel, in the 2007-08 World Marathon Majors Series which concludes in New York on November 2.
* Cheruiyot also became Boston's all-time career earnings leader, having won $469,000 in prize money and course record bonuses in Boston.
* Neil Weygandt completed his 42nd consecutive Boston Marathon, the longest active streak, and believed to be the longest in Boston history.
* There were 1,363,982 unique visitors to the Boston Marathon race day website (BostonMarathon.org) on Patriots' Day. Collectively, they viewed more than 10 million pages.
* 198,267 emails and text messages were issued through the AT&T Athlete Alert Program, notifying registrants of the progress of their friends and family along the course.

The 113th Boston Marathon is scheduled for Monday, April 20, 2009.

Established in 1887, the Boston Athletic Association is a non-profit organization with a mission of managing athletic events and promoting a healthy lifestyle through sports, especially running. The B.A.A.'s Boston Marathon is the world's oldest annual marathon, and the organization manages other local events and supports comprehensive charity, youth and year-round running programs. Since 1986, the principal sponsor of the Boston Marathon has been John Hancock Financial Services.

Ryan Lamppa, Running USA Media Director
(805) 696-6232
Ryan@RunningUSA.org | www.RunningUSA.org