CAA News  10/11/00
SEVEN OF WORLD'S TEN ALL-TIME FASTEST MEN TO RUN
THE LASALLE BANK CHICAGO MARATHON ON OCTOBER 22
   |The LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon added 23 athletes to its already
 stellar field, including two athletes just returning from the Olympics,
 five sub-2:09 men (including yet another sub-2:07'er) two sub-2:26 women
 and two debutantes, according to Carey Pinkowski, executive race director.
   Highlighted by the signing of Kenyan William Kiplagat, whose 2:06:50
 at the 1999 Amsterdam Marathon ranks 10th on the All-Time fastest marathon
 performance list, the additions mean the Race now features 11 men who have
 bettered 2:09 and seven of the ten fastest men in Marathon history - 
 each with established bests below 2:07. Previously announced were Khalid
 Khannouchi (2:05:42 #1 in the World); Moses Tanui (2:06:16, #3); Gert Thys 
 (2:06:33, #4); Josephat Kiprono (2:06:44, #6); Fred Kiprop (2:06:47, #7)
 and Tesfaye Jifar (2:06:49, 8th). Only 12 men have ever run under 2:07 
 and seven of them will line up in Chicago.
    No other race in history has ever featured as many men with those 
 credentials. Chicago's 1999 field was the first ever to offer a head-to-
 head matchup of two sub-2:07'ers when Ondoro Osoro and Ronaldo da Costa
 met last fall and London subsequently introduced three runners below that
 mark at their start line in April of this year when Khannouchi, Thys and
 Kiplagat faced off. The 28-year old Kiplagat's best time came in a third
 place finish in Amsterdam last year behind fellow Chicago competitor
 Kiprop and Jifar and was the fastest third place finish ever. The other
 new sub-2:09 men are North Korean Yi Young Kim, Kenyans Peter Ndirangu
 and Joseph Ngolepus and former Chicago Marathon Champ, Great Britain's
 Paul Evans.
    Japan's Kayoko Obata, an Olympic Marathon alternate with a PR of
 2:25:14, and three-time South African Olympian Elana Meyer, with her
 2:24:15 PR, headline the six women added to the Chicago field.  Meyer,
 34, returns to Chicago after posting back-to-back third place finishes
 here in 1998 and 1999. She finished 1999 ranked #2 by USATF, #3 by
 Running Times and # 6 by Runner's World. Meyer is the world record holder
 at 15 K and the half marathon, was a silver medalist in the 10,000m in
 the 1992 Olympic Games, competed in the 1996 and 2000 Games and is listed
 in eight different events in the South African National record book. 
     Obata, 29, caught the attention of many with a trio of 4th place
 finishes over the past few years ('97 Berlin, '98 Chicago and '99 Osaka)
 but it was her fifth place 2:24:14 in Osaka this year that makes her the
 fastest woman in the Chicago field. She spent much of the summer training
 with Sydney's gold medal winner Naoko Takahashi. Other women added to the
 roster include Russian Irina Timofeyeva, Romanian Nuta Olaru, American
 Mary Knisely (Naperville) and Israeli Nili Abramski. 
    Pinkowski also added Peter Githuka (KEN), Takaki Morikawa (JPN),
 Lahoucine Mrikik (MAR),  John Nada Saya (TAN), rabbits Joseph Kariuki
 (KEN), Godfrey Kiprotich (KEN), Eliud Kurgat (KEN), and Americans Keith
 Dowling, Dan Held, Jeff Jacobs, Eric Mack and Todd Reeser to the men's
 field.
    Githuka, 31, has been ranked in the top 10 in road racing over each of
 the last four years, owns the standing 8K World Record of 22:03 and ran a
 course record 1:02:24 at America's Finest Half Marathon in San Diego in
 August.
   Kim, 27, put up a 2:07:49 fourth place finish in Rotterdam in the spring
 of 1999 that is the 42nd fastest marathon of all time and the second
 fastest fourth place performance in history.
    Morikawa, 29, will be racing for the first time in the United States
 and has finished each of the eight marathons he's run.
   Mrikik, 27, is making his marathon debut in Chicago and coming off a
 1:01:09 half-marathon in August to win the Great South Run in South Africa.
   Ndirangu, 29, returns for the third time to Chicago after making his
 debut here in 1997 in 2:08:46, a time that still stands as his PR. He
 picked up another third place marathon finish in Los Angeles earlier this
 year in a driving rainstorm.
   Ngolepus, 25, earned a fourth place 2:08:49 in Rotterdam this year in
 his marathon debut and has not finished lower than sixth in any of his
 four career certified races.
   Saya, 22, chalked up three sub-1:03 half marathons this year, including
 a 1:01:19 in France in March, and will run his first race on American soil
 at The LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon. 
   Dowling, 31, qualified this summer for the Olympic Track & Field Trials
 at 10,000 m and finished ninth and also competed in the Olympic Marathon
 Trials in 1996 where he set his PR of 2:14:30.
   Held, 34, will be lining up for his 17th marathon, his third in Chicago
 after pacing here last year. H recently finished 4th in the World 100K.
   Mack, 26, a successful U.S track star, is making his marathon debut in 
 Chicago.  He placed second at the Park Forest Scenic 10 this year.
     The 39-year old Evans, The 1996 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon winner,
 returns to the home of his marathon PR to be a rabbit for the second year
 in a row.  Kariuki, 30, owns the standing 25K world record of 1:13:55 and
 will rabbit, too.  Kiprotich, 33, who has paced the last two Chicago
 Marathons, will also be in the lead group as will Kurgat.  Kurgat, 27, a
 late addition to The 1999 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon as a pacer,
 earned another trip back by taking the lead for almost all of the first
 16 miles and hitting the halfway mark in 1:03:03. Reeser, 26, won the U.S.
 National 20K Championship in September, was the runner-up at the U.S.
 Half Marathon Championships and will pace a second pack of runners.
 Jacobs, 36, will act as a rabbit for the fourth time in his six
 appearances at the Chicago Marathon. 
   Abramski, 30, holds the Israeli national records at the 2,000m, 5,000m,
 10,000m, half-marathon and marathon distances. Her marathon best came last 
 year in Chicago when she cut almost six minutes off her previous best
 outing.
   Knisely, 41, is a local favorite and a strong masters runner. She
 qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials this year but injured her foot
 about six weeks before the race in South Carolina and had to settle for
 a 2:45:18 clocking and a 21st place finish.
    Olaru, 30, will be running her eighth marathon in Chicago after posting
 her highest finish in a 26.2-miler earlier this year, a runner-up spot in
 the Los Angeles Marathon.
   Timofeyeva, 30, has been in the top three in five of the 11 marathons
 she's run to date and earned her first marathon win since 1997 at the
 Siberian International Marathon in early August.
                            # # # 
The LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon Elite List
As of 10/10/00
 MEN (Marathon PR)
Jeff Campbell   (2:19:18)
Mark Coogan (2:13:05)
Peter De La Cerda (2:16:18)
Keith Dowling (2:14:30)*
Paul Evans (2:08:52)*
Peter Githuka (2:11:20)*
Dan Held (2:13:50)*
Eddy Hellebuyck (2:11:50)
Tesfaye Jifar (2:06:49)
Joseph Kariuki (2:13:58)*
Khalid Khannouchi (2:05:42)
Yi Young Kim (2:07:49)*
Joseph Kimani (2:25:32)
William Kiplagat (2:06:50)*
Josphat Kiprono (2:06:44)
Fred Kiprop (2:06:47)
Godfrey Kiprotich (no complete marathons)
Eliud Kurgat (2:12:40)*
Eric Mack  - debut*
Teddy Mitchell (2:20:33)
Takaki Morikawa (2:11:21)*
David Morris    (2:09:32)
Lahoucine Mrikik - debut*
Peter Ndirangu (2:08:46)*
Joseph Ngolepus (2:08:49)*
Samuel Otieno (2:09:12)
John Nada Saya (2:13:50)*
Gary Stolz (2:18:46) 
Todd Reeser (2:15:39)*
Moses Tanui (2:06:16)
Gert Thys (2:06:33)
WOMEN (Marathon PR)
Nili Abramski (2:39:24)*
Libbie Hickman  (2:28:34)
Kristy Johnston (2:29:05)
Lornah Kiplagat (2:25:29)
Mary Knisely (2:35:16)*
Elana Meyer (2:25:15)* 
Catherine Ndereba (2:26:11a)
Kayoko Obata (2:25:14)*
Margaret Okayo (2:26:00)
Nuta Olaru (2:34:25)*
Ann Schaefers-Coles  (2:38:25)
Irinia Timofeyeva (2:27:26)*
* - New additions to roster