Muindi Seeks 6th Honolulu Marathon Title, Nurgalieva to Defend Women's Crown
Race record $150,000 prize purse with $40,000 to each race champion

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Posted Thursday, 7 December, 2006

HONOLULU - (December 4, 2006) - Jimmy Muindi has won the Honolulu Marathon five times and that's more than any man in the race's 33-year history.

He has also won the last three races.

But the 33-year-old Kamba tribesman and farm owner from Kenya might not have an easy time winning a sixth title this Sunday.

His old rival, three-time Honolulu Marathon champion Mbarak Hussein, 41, will be in the field again hoping to become the first man from the 50 states to win since 1982. Hussein, who gave up his Kenyan citizenship to become an American in 2004, is the two-time U.S. marathon champion. He won the second title in October at the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon.

Hussein, whose personal record is 2 hours, 8 minutes, 10 seconds (Seoul 2004), lives in New Mexico.

None of the elite front-runners knows the course better than these two men. Muindi has completed it 12 times and Hussein 11 times.

Since 1998, the race, the 6th largest marathon in the world with over 24,000 finishers, has been won by Muindi or Hussein.

Another threat to Muindi's dominance this year is Ethiopia's Ambesse Tolossa, 29, the 2006 Tokyo International Marathon winner (2:08:58).

Muindi is coming off the second best performance of his career. He finished 3rd at the highly competitive LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon in 2:07:51. His PR is 2:07:49 (Rotterdam 2005).

He set the Honolulu Marathon course record of 2:11:12 in 2004.

The women's field
Meanwhile, the women's race is up for grabs again. There hasn't been a repeat champion since 2001 when Lyubov Morgunova won the second of her three Honolulu titles.

This will be one of the deepest fields in the race's history.

Russia's Olesya Nurgalieva, 30, is back to defend her 2005 title. Nurgalieva, an ultra marathoner who has excelled in races twice the distance of the Honolulu Marathon, was the surprise winner of the 2005 race in 2:30:24.

One of the top challengers will be Russia's Lyubov Denisova, a 2005 Los Angeles Marathon champion who set her personal best of 2:25:18 at the 2004 ING New York City Marathon. Denisova, 35, was 3rd at L.A. this year in 2:26:18.

Another Russian coming in with sterling credentials is the young and promising Alevtina Biktimirova. Only 24, Biktimirova was a strong sixth at the 2006 Boston Marathon in 2:26:58. She has a personal best of 2:25:12 seconds, set in 2005 at Frankfurt, Germany.

Yet another challenger for Nurgalieva will be Russian Albina Ivanova, the two-time Nagano Olympic Commemorative Marathon champion. Ivanova has held big leads late in the Honolulu Marathon twice, but she was overtaken in 2002 by countrywoman Svetlana Zakharova and in 2003 by Japan's Eri Hayakawa.

Hayakawa, 25, the 2003 champion, will also be back. Hayakawa has finished second the past two years.

Nurgalieva's twin sister, Elena Nurgalieva, also a successful ultra marathoner, was fourth here last year. She'll be an additional worry for Olesya as she also joins the hunt for the women's title on Sunday, Dec. 10.

Women from former Soviet states have won the nine of the last 10 Honolulu Marathons.

Race record purse
For its 34th edition, the Honolulu Marathon will have a prize purse more than double what was offered in 2005 as the total purse for men and women will jump from $65,000 to $150,000.

The biggest increase will be for first place. Last year, it paid $15,000, but this year it will pay $40,000. In addition, money for 2nd thru 5th place finishes will double.

The bonus structure will remain the same. The champion who breaks the Honolulu Marathon men's or women's course record will get an extra $10,000. There are also 11 different time incentive bonuses applicable to men and women that pay between $1000 and $50,000.

At the race expo on Thursday and Friday, the "Legends of Running" autograph sessions will feature nine greats of the sport. This year's Legends are: Kip Keino, Frank Shorter, Meb Keflezighi, Alberto Salazar, Patti (Catalano) Dillon (4-time Honolulu winner), Carla Beurskens (8-time Honolulu winner), Greg Meyer, Ian Stewart and Cosmas Ndeti. They will sign from 11:00am to 1:00pm on Thursday and from 10:00am to 12:00pm on Friday.

For more race information, visit: www.HonoluluMarathon.org

Related info:
> Running Legends Flock to Honolulu

> "Magic Wand" Debuts At Honolulu Marathon

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