Press Release - Elite Runner Management - 8/6/14

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

              Weldon Kirui, 2:09 Marathoner & Winner of the 
 2013 California International Marathon, Signs With Elite Runner Management

Weldon Kirui, a marathon runner with a personal best of 2:09:06 and 
defending champion of the California International Marathon in Sacramento, 
has signed an agency contract with Elite Runner Management, the Michigan 
based sports agency headed by Christopher Mengel.

"We are tremendously excited to have the opportunity to represent Weldon. 
He is a gifted athlete who has had remarkable success despite his young 
age. Not only is Weldon fast, he has an innate confidence in his ability, a 
fearlessness, which allows him to compete for the podium in every race he 
enters against some of the best runners in the world. We are very pleased 
he signed with our agency," Mengel said.

Besides winning last year's Cal International, Kirui, only 25, finished 2nd 
in the 2012 Los Angeles Marathon and placed 4th in that race in 2013.  He 
won the Kass Marathon (championship of Kenya) in 2012 and was the AFC San 
Diego Half Marathon Champion in 2011.  His half-marathon personal record of 
61:10 was set when he won the Krems Half Marathon in Austria.  

"I decided to use Christopher Mengel as my manager because he has a good 
heart to help his athletes succeed in their careers," Kirui said. "He has 
already helped other athletes like me to achieve their career goals." 

Kirui's race plans for the rest of 2014 include running a marathon in 
Europe, probably the Eidenhoven Marathon where he set his personal best and 
to defend his title at Cal International in December. Kirui (pronounced 
ka-Roo-ee) is self-coached and lives and trains in his hometown of Bomet, 
Kenya. His wife, Caroline, also an accomplished long distance runner, 
finished 9th in the Peachtree 10K in Atlanta in 2011. He and Caroline have 
one child, Brian, who was born in 2009. 

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