|
Kastor Dominates Circle of Friends New York Mini 10K.
De Reuck Sets U.S. Masters Record
NEW YORK - (June 12, 2004) - Deena Kastor of Mammoth Lakes,
Calif. turned the Circle of Friends New York Mini 10K into
an individual time trial Saturday as the Team Running USA
athlete left one of the best American all-women's road race
fields ever assembled in her wake and charged to victory in
an American course record time of 31:44.
Running under near ideal conditions, Kastor, 31, surged to
the lead just past the mile mark and never looked back as
she cruised to the finish line 54 seconds ahead of second
place finisher and rising star Kate O'Neill.
Kastor's Olympic marathon teammates of Jen Rhines and Colleen
De Reuck crossed the line soon after O'Neill for third and
fourth places respectively.
Kastor's time was a personal record for a road 10K and a
24-second improvement over the last time she ran the race
in 2002, when she finished sixth. With the win she earned
$10,000 and an additional $1,000 bonus for breaking 32 minutes.
"It was a great race," Kastor said. "My training
has been going really well, which is what I need for my confidence."
While Kastor stole the show at the front of the race, De
Reuck firmly established herself as one of the best American
Masters runners of all time with her fourth place finish.
Her time of 32:50 broke Ruth Wysocki's 7-year-old U.S. masters
record by over 30 seconds and marks the second time in two
weeks that De Reuck has rewritten the masters record books.
Last week, the Boulder, Colo. resident set a masters 5K road
world record with her time of 15:48 at the Freihofer's Run
for Women. De Reuck said getting the master's record was nice,
but described her performance on Saturday as mediocre.
"I am not extremely happy with my race today,"
she said. "But in the scheme of things training for the
marathon is most important - I just don't have the leg turnover
at the moment."
The record-setting race kicked off amid a festive atmosphere
with over 4,000 female entrants in the Big Apple, but the
lead pack did not respond to the crowd's energy as they marked
each other throughout a tentative 5:28 first mile.
Just past the mile mark, as the field made a sharp right-hand
turn into Central Park, Kastor - who holds U.S. records for
5K, 10,000 meters, 15K and marathon - made her decisive surge
to the front. Within a quarter mile she had broken away from
the field.
"I wanted to be comfortable in the first mile just to
test out how I was feeling and how the other racers were feeling,"
Kastor recounted. "But the first mile felt really conservative
and really slow, so after that first mile I was itching to
go."
The Arkansas grad lengthened her lead with a solid 4:54 third
mile and by the time she reached the 5K mark in 16:06 she
had a nearly 30 second lead over the chase pack of O'Neill,
Rhines and De Reuck.
With a big lead, Kastor powered through a mostly uphill fourth
mile in 5:07 before rolling to the finish with consecutive
sub-five miles to break the tape.
Behind Kastor, O'Neill made a hard move at the 4-mile mark
to leave Rhines and De Reuck in a battle for third place.
Rhines eventually got the upper hand in the duel as she kicked
past De Reuck with roughly 800 meters to go.
After the race Rhines said Kastor's significant early lead
in the rolling hills and winding roads of Central Park had
left everyone else battling for second place.
"When you are in a road race and you can no longer see
someone, you know you aren't going to catch them," the
Team Running USA athlete said. "Especially when it is
a 10K and not a marathon."
Kastor's victory came on the heals of an intense period of
training in the mountains and rarified air around her home
of Mammoth Lakes, Calif., and was a needed confidence boost
after a somewhat disappointing second place finish at he U.S.
Olympic Marathon trials where she faded to second over the
final miles.
Next Saturday, Kastor will compete at the USA Half-Marathon
Championship in Duluth, Minn. and is also expected to compete
at the U.S. Olympic Track Trials in July.
While Kastor's performance was a reaffirmation of her dominance,
O'Neill's second place showing was confirmation of the 23-year-old
Yale graduate's arrival to elite status.
A grinning O'Neill said that her success this year, which
includes a 31:43 10,000 meter at the Cardinal Invitational,
has been a pleasant surprise.
"It's just exciting to be part of a field like this,"
she said. "This is all really new to me."
O'Neill trains in New Haven, Conn. with her former college
coaches and her twin sister, Laura, who finished in sixth
place at Saturday's New York Mini 10K.
This year's edition of the Mini 10K offered American-only
prize money to highlight the United States' top female distance
runners in an Olympic year. While the large American field
was a departure from the star-studded foreign fields that
have characterized the event in past years, Kastor made sure
the quality at the front of the pack did not suffer.
1984 Olympic marathon gold medalist Joan Benoit Samuelson
was impressed with all of the American women's performances
in the Mini 10K, and despite being hobbled by nagging injuries
in Saturday's race where she finished 24th in 38:12, she had
one of the most optimistic views of the talented U.S. women's
marathon team that participated here.
"What you see in these three women is something that
has not been equaled in American marathon running history,"
she said. "I think we have a very strong, experienced
and capable team going to Athens."
33rd Circle of Friends New York Mini 10K - New York, NY,
Saturday, June 12, 2004
1. Deena Kastor, CA, 31:44*, $11,000
2. Kate O'Neill, CT, 32:38, $6,500
3. Jen Rhines, PA, 32:44, $4,500
4. Colleen De Reuck, 40, CO, 32:50#, $3,500
5. Katie McGregor, MN, 33:38, $2,000
6. Laura O'Neill, CT, 34:06, $1,000
7. Kathy Newberry, VA, 34:09, $850
8. Heather Hanscom, VA, 34:34, $750
9. Magdalena Lewy, CA, 34:49, $600
10. Claudia Camargo, ARG, 35:00
11. Anne Kugler, NY, 35:05, $500
12. Sonja Friend-Uhl, FL, 35:19, $400
13. Alemtsehay Misganaw, ETH, 35:26
14. Carmen Troncoso, 45, TX, 35:30+, $300
15. Jeanne Hennessy, NJ, 35:41, $250
*U.S. course record (previous record 31:52 by Anne Marie Letko
in 1994)
#pending U.S. 40-44 age group/masters record (previous record
33:22, Ruth Wysocki, Azalea Trail Run, Mobile, AL, March 22,
1997)
+pending U.S. 45-59 age group record
For complete results go to: http://www.nyrrc.org
source Running USA wire
|
Time-to-Run News section
