FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Quigley, Rothstein lead U.S. teams at World Half Marathon Championships
INDIANAPOLIS - Sean Quigley (Philadelphia, Pa.) and Stephanie Rothstein
(Flagstaff, Ariz.) each scored 19th-place finishes in the respective men's
and women's races at the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in Nanning,
China Saturday.
Zersenay Tadese of Eritrea was on a quest to win his fifth world title at
these championships but was upset by Wilson Kiprop of Kenya. Kiprop took
the men's title in 1:00:07 to Tadese's 1:00:11.
Quigley and Antonio Vega (Minneapolis, Minn.), the USARC champion for 2010,
started out together in a large group, running in 30th position. Working
together, the pair steadily moved through the pack with Quigley moving in
front of Vega with about one kilometer to go. Quigley was timed in 1:03:23,
while Vega finished 23rd in 1:03:37. Andrew Carlson (Flagstaff, Ariz.)
finished as the third scoring member of Team USA, running 1:05:38 for
39th-place. Ben Bruce (Eugene, Ore.) and Stephan Shay (Oakland, Calif.)
finished 56th and 58th in 1:09:26 and 1:10:12 respectively.
Kenya took their fifth consecutive team title with a total time of 3:01:32
over Eritrea, who finished with a total time of 3:03:4. Team USA finished
sixth in 3:12:38.
In the women's race, Kiprop's teammate, Florence Kiplagat, dueled with Dire
Tune of Ethiopia over the final kilometer before pulling away for a 10
second win. Running 1:08:24, Kiplagat led Kenya to a sweep of both the
individual and team titles.
The U.S. women ran together from the start, forming a pack in about
40th-place. Over the next five kilometers, Rothstein surged to move up to
29th, and by the halfway mark, moved to 20th. Over the final two
kilometers, Rothstein made a final surge that moved her into 19th place,
hitting the line in 1:13:37. Samia Akbar (Herndon, Va.) and Loretta Kilmer
(New York, N.Y.) rounded out the Team USA score, finishing 36th and 38th in
1:16:15 and 1:16:32 respectively. Kristen Zaitz (Boulder, Colo.) and Heidi
Westover (Walpole, N.H.) finished 39th and 41st, in 1:16:51 and 1:18:06.
In the team race, like their male compatriots, the women of Team Kenya won
their fifth consecutive title in 3:26:59. Ethiopia was second in 3:27:33.
Team USA finished seventh in 3:46:24.
A total of $245,000 prize money was offered at the championships, with
$30,000 going to the individual champions and $15,000 to the respective
men's and women's team champions.
For more information on Team USA at the 2010 IAAF World Half Marathon
Championships, visit www.usatf.org.
About USA Track & Field
USA Track & Field (USATF) is the National Governing Body for Track & Field,
long-distance running and race walking in the United States. USATF
encompasses the world's oldest organized sports, the World's #1 Track &
Field Team, the most-watched events at the Olympics, the #1 high school and
junior high school participatory sport, and more than 30 million adult
runners in the United States: www.usatf.org.
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