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New York Road Runners
Lorraine DelliCarpini
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Marathon World Record-Holder Paula Radcliffe Selected as
2006 Abebe Bikila Award Winner
Radcliffe is first British recipient of award, presented by New York Road
Runners New York, October 27, 2006—Marathon world record-holder Paula
Radcliffe, who has six victories in seven marathon starts and owns four of
the five fastest women’s marathon times in history, will receive the 2006
Abebe Bikila Award, it was announced today by New York Road Runners
president and CEO and ING New York City Marathon race director Mary
Wittenberg. Every year since 1978, New York Road Runners has given the
prestigious award to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution
to distance running, particularly through a spirit of deep commitment to
the sport.
Nine-time New York City Marathon champion Grete Waitz will join Wittenberg
in presenting the award to Radcliffe, the first British recipient, at the
United Nations before the start of the Continental Airlines International
Friendship Run on Saturday, November 4, the day before the ING New York
City Marathon. The Continental Airlines International Friendship Run is a
fun run through Midtown Manhattan that annually attracts a field of more
than 20,000 people from around the world.
"Paula is a champion in life," said Wittenberg. "From smashing records to
ensuring that her athletics success benefits others through her
philanthropy, Paula is someone who inspires and cares."
Previous winners of the Abebe Bikila Award include Lasse Viren, Grete
Waitz, Alberto Salazar, Bill Rodgers, Tegla Loroupe, Stefano Baldini, and
former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Last year’s honoree was the
2004 women’s Olympic marathon champion, Mizuki Noguchi of Japan.
"It is a great honor for me to receive such an award," said Radcliffe. "The
name alone represents so much for distance running and it is a huge
privilege to join the list of outstanding athletes and previous winners who
have done so much for our sport. I am sincerely grateful to New York Road
Runners for this honor. I already have a special place in my heart for New
York and this only adds to it."
Radcliffe, 32, owns the women’s marathon world record of 2:15:25 which she
set in 2003 at the Flora London Marathon. She has won London three times,
including her marathon debut there in 2002 when she finished in 2:18:56,
setting what was then a women’s-only world best. In her second attempt at
the 26.2-mile distance later that year, Radcliffe knocked more than 90
seconds off her London time by running 2:17:18 at the LaSalle Bank Chicago
Marathon. Those two races, coupled with gold medals at the European
Championships and Commonwealth Games that summer, earned her the IAAF
Athlete of the Year and BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards in 2002.
Returning to London in 2003, Radcliffe again lowered her record (by nearly
two minutes), and after struggling with injuries and illness in late 2003
and early 2004, won the ING New York City Marathon 2004 in a thrilling
sprint finish with Kenyan Susan Chepkemei. Radcliffe won by three seconds
in the closest women’s finish in New York history.
She garnered her third London victory in 2005, and captured the gold medal
in the marathon at the 2005 IAAF World Championships in Helsinki.
Raised in Bedfordshire, England, Radcliffe’s early athletics success came
in cross country running, where she won the 1992 World Junior title,
defeating 1996 Olympic gold medalist Wang Junxia. She missed the 1994
season with injury, but returned in 1995 with a fifth-place finish at the
IAAF World Championships 5000 meters, a result she would duplicate at the
1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Although she won the silver medal in the
1999 World Championships 10,000, she finished a heartbreaking fourth at
that distance in both the 2000 Olympics and 2001 IAAFWorld Championships.
Radcliffe’s relative lack of a sprint finish may have hurt her on the
track, but her ability to set a punishing pace was perfectly suited to road
racing, and she won scores of major road races including back-to-back
victories at the IAAF World Half-Marathon Championships.
In addition to her spectacular talent and her commitment to the sport,
Radcliffe has been an outspoken critic of performance-enhancing drugs in
athletics, and has made several high-profile condemnations of "dirty"
athletes. Radcliffe wears a red ribbon while competing to show her support
for blood testing as a means of catching drug cheats.
Inspired by her own battle with asthma, Radcliffe is widely admired for her
patronage of asthma charities. She is Asthma UK’s team captain.
She leads the sport from smashing records to negotiating her contracts
pursuant to which children benefit from her athletic success.
Radcliffe and husband, Gary Lough, are expecting their first child in early
January. Radcliffe has not competed since December 31, 2005 when she won
the San Silvestro Vallecana 10K in Madrid, Spain in a course-record time of
31:16.
Abebe Bikila was an Ethiopian marathoner who was the only runner ever to
win two Olympic marathons (Rome, barefoot, in 1960 and Tokyo in 1964). Just
five years after his second Olympic victory, Bikila was in a car accident
that left him paralyzed from the waist down until his death in 1973. He
remained an outspoken advocate of the marathon and was instrumental in
drawing marathon running out of obscurity and into the international
limelight.
Past Winners of the Abebe Bikila Award presented by New York Road Runners
1978 - Ted Corbitt (USA)
1979 – Emil Zatopek (Czechoslovakia)
1980 – Lasse Viren (Finland)
1981 – Frank Shorter (USA)
1982 – Mamo Wolde (Ethiopia)
1983 – Grete Waitz (Norway)
1984 – Derek Clayton (Australia)
1985 – John A. Kelley (USA)
1986 – Joan Samuelson (USA)
1987 – Kee Chung Sohn (South Korea)
1988 – Alberto Salazar (USA)
1989 – Bill Rodgers (USA)
1990 – Waldemar Cierpinski (Germany)
1991 – Alain Mimoun (France)
1992 – Ingrid Kristiansen (Norway)
1993 – Rod Dixon (New Zealand)
1994 – Juma Ikangaa (Tanzania)
1995 – Fred Lebow (USA)
1996 – Orlando Pizzolato (Italy)
1997 – Lisa Ondieki (Australia)
1998 – Rosa Mota (Portugal)
1999 – Tegla Loroupe (Kenya)
2000 – Khalid Khannouchi (USA)
2001 – Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (USA)
2002 – Allison Roe (New Zealand)
2003 – Kathrine Switzer (USA)
2004 – Stefano Baldini (Italy)
2005 – Mizuki Noguchi (Japan)
2006 – Paul Radcliffe (Great Britain)
New York Road Runners
New York Road Runners, soon to celebrate its 50th anniversary, is dedicated
to promoting the sport of distance running, enhancing health and fitness
for all, and responding to community needs. Our road races and other
fitness programs draw upwards of 300,000 runners annually, and together
with our magazine and website support and promote professional and
recreational running. A staff of 60, assisted by thousands of volunteers,
stages the ING New York City Marathon, as well as a road race nearly every
weekend plus many track and cross country events. NYRR’s home base in New
York, and its lifelong identification with Central Park, have given many of
its events iconic status, attracting the world’s top professional runners.
Our youth programs provide running to 15,000 New York City schoolchildren
who would otherwise have few or no fitness opportunities. For more
information visit www.nyrr.org.
The ING New York City Marathon
The premier event of New York Road Runners, the ING New York City Marathon
is one of the world’s great road races, drawing more than 90,000
applicants. The race attracts many world-class professional athletes, not
only for the more than $600,000 in prize money, but also for the chance to
excel in the media capital of the world before two million cheering
spectators and 312 million worldwide television viewers. As any one of the
672,000 past participants will attest, crossing the finish line in Central
Park is one of the great thrills of a lifetime. For more information visit
www.ingnycmarathon.org.
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