Sell Wins USA Men's Half-Marathon Title
Posted Monday, 16 January, 2006
Report from Jim Estes, USATF
HOUSTON - (January 15, 2006) - Pre-race favorite Brian Sell of Rochester Hills, Mich. won his second national title overall at the USA Men's Half-Marathon Championship in Houston, Texas on Sunday. The championship, hosted by the Aramco Houston Half Marathon also featured Open athletes with Nicodemus Malakwen of Kenya taking the overall win in a course record 1:02:07. Sell ran a personal record 1:02:39 for second overall, just missing the national championship record of 1:02:32 set by Paul Cummings in 1987.
In the U.S. race, Sell took control from Brandon Leslie of Albuquerque, N.M. and Jason Hartmann of Boulder, Colo., shortly after eight miles when he began to run through a series of 4:45 miles to open a lead which would amount to 28 seconds by the finish. Hartmann held on for second, running 1:03:07 one second ahead of Max King of Bend, Ore., with Leslie finishing fourth in 1:03:10. Andrew Carlson of Apple Valley, Minn. rounded out the top-five running 1:03:21. Both King and Carlson were debuting at the half-marathon distance.
"It feels really good, this is my second U.S. title, especially running a fast time," said Sell. "It was good to see a lot of fast times from the young U.S. guys too; it shows that we're making progress and can compete on the international scene."
Sell and his Hansons-Brooks Distance Project teammates Luke Humphrey, Chad Johnson, Clint Verran and Kyle O'Brien won the team title, placing five athletes in the top-thirty.
The USA Men's Half-Marathon Championship hosted by the Aramco Houston Half Marathon, offered a purse of $21,000 to the top ten U.S. athletes with Sell earning $7000 as national champion. The race was also qualifier for one athlete from the top three U.S. finishers for the 2006 IAAF World Road Running Championships to be held October 8 in Debrecen, Hungary.
The 2006 USA Men's Half-Marathon Championship kicked off USA Track & Field's 2006 USA Running Circuit (USARC), a road racing series featuring USA Championships from 5K to the marathon and attracting the best U.S. distance runners, including Olympians Deena Kastor, Meb Keflezighi, Colleen De Reuck, Dathan Ritzenhein, Jen Rhines and Dan Browne. The twelfth edition for the men and eleventh for the women, the 2006 circuit has eight events for men and seven events for women.
The first ten U.S. runners earn points at each USARC race (15 for first, 12 for second, 10 for third, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1), with a final $12,500 grand prix purse ($6000, $4000, and $2500) for the top three men and women point scorers overall. The USARC points at the USA Marathon Championships will be doubled.
The mission of the USA Running Circuit is to showcase, support and promote U.S. runners. Since its inception in 1995, the USARC and its races have provided over $5.6 million dollars to U.S. distance runners.
For more information on the 2006 USA Men's Half-Marathon Championship and the USARC, visit USATF.org.
Aramco Half Marathon: USA Men's Half-Marathon Championship
Houston, TX, Sunday, January 15, 2006
1) Nicodemus Malakwen, Kenya, 1:02:07, $5000
2) Brian Sell, USA/MI, 1:02:39, $10,500, national champion
3) Jason Hartmann, USA/CO, 1:03:07, $6300
4) Max King, USA/OR, 1:03:08, $4200
5) Brandon Leslie, USA/NM, 1:03:10, $2350
For full results and more information, go to ChevronHoustonMarathon.com
Ryan Lamppa, Running USA Media Director
415 E Figueroa St
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
(805) 696-6232
Ryan@RunningUSA.org
RunningUSA.org
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