Ethiopians Win Chiba Ekiden in Record Times
Team USA 9th and 10th

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Posted Tuesday, 25 November, 2003

CHIBA-CITY, Japan - (November 24, 2003) - At the International Chiba Ekiden marathon road relay, Ethiopia again swept the overall team titles with impressive course records in 1:55:59 and 2:11:22 respectively. Kenya was a distant second in both competitions, 1:58:56 and 2:15:37.

In addition, both winning times were also the fastest ever run for a five (men) and six (women) stage marathon road relay or Ekiden. The Ethiopian men's team bettered the previous record of 1:57:03 run by the Ethiopian team in 1992 at Berlin, while the women broke the previous record, 2:11:41, which was set by the Chinese team at the 1998 Beijing Ekiden.

Under cool, windy and overcast conditions, Ethiopia simply dominated the competition as each relay leg member won his or her respective stage as the men's team recorded stage records in four of the five stages, the women's team set three records in the six stages of their race. Each winning team earned $20,000 plus each member pocketed an extra $1000 for best time in each leg.

Team USA finished 9th (men) and 10th (women) in 2:04:33 and 2:25:01 respectively. The U.S. men set a pending U.S. 5-leg marathon road relay record, a new USA Track & Field record category established this year. The best American place legs - 6th and 4th respectively - were produced by anchor leg Teren Jameson of Salt Lake City, Utah and third leg Katherine Newberry of Williamsburg, Va. Overall, 16 men's and 15 women's teams completed the relay competition.

Int'l Chiba Ekiden Road Relay
26.2 miles/42.195 km
Chiba-City, JPN, Monday, November 24, 2003

MEN
1) Ethiopia, 1:55:59*
2) Kenya, 1:58:56
3) Japan, 2:01:53
4) Russia, 2:02:31
5) Japan Collegiate team, 2:03:14
9) USA, 2:04:33#
16 teams overall
*Course Record (previous record 1:57:56 by Ethiopia in 2002) and fastest Ekiden ever; #pending U.S. record

FASTEST LEGS: 1-5
10 km - Berhane Dejene (ETH), 27:18 record (previous 27:19)
5 km - Hailu Mekonnen (ETH), 13:43
10 km - Gebregzi Gebremariam (ETH), 27:35 record (previous 28:16)
5 km - Markos Geneti (ETH), 13:29 record (previous 13:42)
12.195 km - Sileshi Sihine (ETH), 33:54 record (previous 34:29)

Team USA Men (2:04:33), 9th
Leg TIME/leg place/team place/athlete
10 km 29:19/13th/13th/Chris Graff, 28, Palo Alto, Calif.
5 km 14:26/10th/13th/Peter Julian, 32, Boulder, Colo.
10 km 29:33/8th/11th/Kevin Doyle, 23, Rochester Hills, Mich.
5 km 14:25/10th/10th/Nolan Swanson, 28, Springfield, Ore.
12.195 km 36:50/6th/9th/Teren Jameson, 26, Salt Lake City, Utah

WOMEN
1) Ethiopia, 2:11:22*
2) Kenya, 2:15:37
3) Japan, 2:15:40
4) Russia, 2:18:49
5) Chiba prefecture, 2:18:59
10) USA, 2:25:01
15 teams overall
*Course Record (previous record 2:13:33 by Japan in 2001) and fastest Ekiden ever

FASTEST LEGS: 1-6
10 km - Berhane Adere (ETH), 30:12 record (previous 30:55)
5 km - Tirunesh Dibaba (ETH), 15:14
10 km - Eyerusalem Kuma (ETH), 32:16
5 km - Ejigayehu Dibaba (ETH), 15:11 record (previous 15:15)
4.767 km - Meseret Defar (ETH), 15:43
7.428 km - Werknesh Kidane (ETH), 22:46 record (previous 23:18)

Team USA Women (2:25:01), 10th
Leg TIME/leg place/team place/athlete
10 km 34:40/14th/14th/Naoko Ishibe, 34, Silver Spring, Md.
5 km 17:20/12th/14th/Janet Robertz, 44, Shorewood, Minn.
10 km 33:33/4th/9th/Katherine Newberry, 25, Williamsburg, Va.
5 km 16:41/7th/9th/Suzanne Weeder Einspahr, 32, Seward, Neb.
4.767 km 16:52/10th/9th/Jody Hawkins, 37, Blooming Grove, Texas
7.428 km 25:55/11th/10th/Beth Old, 29, Douglasville, Ga.

Visit the race website at: http://www.chiba-ekiden.jp/index_e.html

# # #

Ryan Lamppa, Running USA Media Services
USATF Road Running Information Center
385 Oak View Ln
Santa Barbara, CA 93111
(805) 696-6232, efax (419) 818-3931
http://www.runningusa.org
http://www.usatf.org

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