The Dismal Swamp Stomp Half Marathon Announces Elite Field
Posted Friday, 17 April, 2009
CHESAPEAKE, Va. - (April 14, 2009) - The Dismal Swamp Stomp Half Marathon presented by the Chesapeake Regional Medical Center and KaleRunning.com announce the most competitive elite field in the Swamp Stomps history for the Saturday, April 18 race.
Worku Beyi of Ethiopia leads a deep and talented men's Open division with a career best half-marathon time of 1:01:57. New to the professional distance ranks, Japheth Kipkirui Ng'ojoy of Kenya comes from UTEP where he has run 28:24.48 for 10,000 meters. Demesse Tefera (1:02:47) and Gurmesa Megersa (1:03) both of Ethiopia, James Boitt (1:03) of Kenya and the recent winner of the ING Georgia Marathon, Abraham Ng'etich (1:05:52) of Kenya and Patrick Cheruiyot (1:05:01) of Kenya round out the men's field.
The women's Open division is equally impressive with all participants having run a half-marathon under one hour and sixteen minutes. Hirut Manfredo of Ethiopia won the recent SunTrust National Half Marathon in Washington DC in 1:15:36, setting the women's record by 55 seconds. Alemstehay Misganaw of Ethiopia was last year's winner at the half-marathon in Richmond and has a career best time of 1:12:48 at the Philadelphia Distance Run last September. Also from Ethiopia, and wife to Men's Elite Worku Beyi, Buzunesh Deba ran the Naples Half Marathon in 1:13:25 last January. Kenyan Divina Jepkogei ran 1:14:58 at the 2008 Oaks Half Marathon and won the Mississippi Blues Marathon in January. The women's field is rounded out with fellow Kenyans Hellen Jemutia and Ndungu Rahab.
The Masters (40+) field is headlined by Virginia's John Piggot who ran last year's OBX Half Marathon in 1:14:50. Also in the Masters category is Alexey Korobov of Russia who ran the Crescent City Classic 10K in 32:18.
The Open prize purse goes five deep ($1250, $800, $625, $425 and $225) with Masters money three deep ($200, $150 and $100). The top three local men and women will earn $100 for first, $75 for second and $50 for third.
Slated for April 18, 2009, the 13.1-mile foot race follows a straight and flat course along the beautiful Inter-coastal Waterway all within the Dismal Swamp Trail Park in Chesapeake. For more information, call Kale Running at (757) 373-4174 or visit: www.DismalSwampStomp.com
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