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Julius Rotich and Erica Braswell made the most of their double weekends on Sunday, winning the men's and women's individual titles at the Chicago Chinatown 5K. Each earned $400 in prize money for their championships runs. Under sunny and breezy conditions, more than 200 runners turned out for the fourth annual event.

Rotich, 27, of West Des Moines, IA, and Erica Braswell, 22, of Birmingham, AL, didn't win their Saturday races, but both came out on top on the streets of Chinatown. Rotich won in 14:41 and Braswell crossed the tape in 17:17.

"Yesterday was a warmup for this," said Rotich, referring to Saturday's Standard Federal Savings 10K in Grand Rapids, MI, where he took 6th place in 30:41. He had picked up an application for the Chinatown race when he was in town a few weeks ago to run and win the Ricky Birdsong 5K in Evanston.

"This was a fast race!" Rotich said. Both he and his friend, Chris Sabul, ran most of the race with Musam Kimeli and top local standout, Jacek Kafel. With a half-mile to go, Rotich put on a surge and was able to keep the lead all the way to the finish. It was close as Kimeli took second place 14:42. Kafel, who was pleased with his 34-second improvement over last year, finished third in 14:43. Next on Rotich's agenda is this weekend's Bix 7-miler in Davenport, IA.

Braswell, who was in town visiting her brother and his fiance, chose this race over the competing event, the Chicago 10K. "I figured I can do back-to-back 5Ks, but not a back-to-back 5K and 10K." She said.

Braswell finished second to Jenny Spangler in Saturday's Galloping Ghost 5K in 16:58. In Sunday's race, she led the whole race but was a bit perplexed by the wind, "It was a loop course and somehow I had the wind in my face the whole loop," she said.

A recent graduate of Auburn Universitiy, the 5K specialist is being trained by Chris Fox (husband of 1994 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon winner, Kristy Johnston). When asked what her plans are she didn't rule out moving to Chicago and said she'd like to come back and run the State Street Mile in Rockford next month.

The next female finisher was last year's winner Stacia Beste in 17:30 followed by Dot McMahan in 18:02.

Afterward, many of the runners stayed around and enjoyed the Chinatown Summer Festival.

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