FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Scotiabank announces $20,000 cash bonus for Women's Canadian
All-comers record: Biktimirova and Gigi confirmed to join Sobanska.
TORONTO. September 10, 2007. Scotiabank today announced a C$20,000 cash
bonus for anyone who can set a new Women's Canadian All-comers record at
the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon on September 30th. The existing
mark is 2:26:01, set by Romania's Lidia Simon at the World Championships
Marathon in Edmonton in 2001. Scotiabank has already confirmed a C$20,000
bonus for a new Men's All-comers record of sub 2:09:55, a time that was so
narrowly missed last year by Kenyan Daniel Rono, when he ran 2:10:15.
Joining last year's returning champion, Malgorzata Sobanska of Poland, in
the dash for the women's cash, will be Russian Alevtina Biktimirova and
Ethiopians Asha Gigi and Merima Denboba. Only 25 years old, Biktimirova
began her marathon career in Canada, when she ran a 2:32:15 debut at Ottawa
in the Spring of 2004. That was good for second place, behind
Russian-Canadian, Lioudmila Kortchaguina, who now calls Toronto home and
represented Canada in Osaka. Biktimirova, from Cheboksary on the Volga
River 800km east of Moscow, burst onto the world scene with a 2:25:12 in
Frankfurt in 2005. She then placed 6th at Boston in 2006 with a 2:26:58;
she was 6th in the European Championships marathon; then 6th at Honolulu
'06 in 2:29:42.
At 34 years, Asha Gigi is an experienced veteran who has represented
Ethiopia at a variety of distances, from the World Cross Country
Championships to 10,000m on the track, as well as the marathon. More
recently, in her15-year athletics career, she has focused on the marathon,
running her PR of 2:26:05 in Paris in 2004 [2nd]. A native of Arsi, Asha
was 4th at Berlin last Fall, and 3rd at Paris this Spring, running 2:29:11
on a warm morning.
Another experienced Ethiopian, 33 year old Merima Denboba is better known
for her shorter distance achievements. She has represented Ethiopia 11
times at the World Cross, including a second-place finish in 1999,
third-place in 2003, and 8 top-ten finishes. On the track, she has run 8:45
for 3,000m, 15:06 for 5000m and 31:33 for 10000m; she also has a decent
half marathon of 69:36, run in Lisbon in 2004. Merima is now trying to move
up to the marathon. She tried the distance in the Spring of 2005 in Milan
for the first time and didn't have a good time [2:43]. After a break from
the beast in 2006, she then came back strong and ran 2:32 in both Lahore in
January '07 and Hamburg in April this year. She seems to be getting the
hang of the 42km distance. Once she does, who knows how fast she can go?
Rounding out the women's Start List will be France's Svetlana Pretot and
Argentina's Claudia Camargo. Pretot surprised a lot of people with her
2:32:50, that gave her second place at the challenging, Rock'n Roll
Marathon in June. The outing was a major breakthrough, and also showed that
she was not afraid to run against, and beat some of the more-favoured
Africans.
"This is by far the best women's field we've had at Toronto Waterfront,"
said Race Director Alan Brookes. "There's definitely a chance we can give
away the $20,000 if we have a good day. And believe it or not, there's only
ever been one sub-2:30 performance by a woman on Canadian soil, outside of
the World Championships in 2001. That was Lioudmila Kortchaguina's 2:29:41
in winning Ottawa in May 2006. Wouldn't it be great if we could get 3 or 4
at Toronto Waterfront this year?"
| WOMEN | Number | Hometown | PR [year] |
| Malgorzata Sobanska | F1 | Poznan, Poland | 2:26:08 [2001] |
| Alevtina Biktimirova | F2 | Cheboksary, Russia | 2:25:12 [2005] |
| Asha Gigi | F3 | Arsi, Ethiopia | 2:26:05 [2004] |
| Merima Denboba | F4 | Arsi, Ethiopia | 2:32:54 [2007] |
| Svetlana Pretot | F6 | France | 2:32:50 [2007] |
| Claudia Camargo | F7 | Argentina | 2:35:04 [2006] |
| Lisa Harvey | F10 | Team Canada [Calgary, AB] | 2:48:56 [2007] |
| Jenny Clague | F12 | Team GB | 2:36:10 [2006] |
| Alice Braham | F14 | Team GB | 2:40:36 [2006] |
| Alicia Rodriguez | F15 | Team Mexico | 2:36:16 [2004] |
| Araceli Juarez | F16 | Team Mexico | 2:51:52 [2006] |
| Melissa Gacek | F17 | Minnesota, USA | 2:47:59 [2007] |
| Ariana Quino Salazar | F18 | Mexico | 2:39:17 [2007] |
| Janelle Morisson | F20 | Team Canada [Fort St. John, BC] | 2:54:24 [2007] |
| Liz Maguire | F21 | Osgoode, ON | 2:53:43 [2007] |
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