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Dec-5-2005
$172,900 purse for Houston races
by David Monti
(c) Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved
Organizers of the 2006 Chevron Houston Marathon and Aramco Houston
Half-Marathon scheduled for Jan. 15 announced last week that their event
would offer a $172,900 prize money purse. The event is the site of the U.S.
Men's Half-Marathon Championship
"While we are still finalizing the fields, already the competitive slates
are very strong," said David Chester, elite athlete coordinator.
Thirty-five year-old David Cheruiyot of Kenya plans to return to defend his
Chevron Houston Marathon title. Last year, he led the race from mile 9 to
claim victory in 2:14:50. Challenging him again this year will be the men
who took second, third and fourth in 2005: Andrej Naumov, 32, Ukraine; Marek
Jaroszewski, 30, Poland (and 2004 Houston Marathon winner) and Russian
Olympian Dmitry Burmakin, 25. Also competing will be Sisay Bezabeh of
Australia, who ran a 2:11:08 at the 2003 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon.
In the women's race, headliners include two Russians: Tatiana Borisova, with
a 2:30:37 personal record in the marathon, and champion at the Freescale
Austin Marathon the past two years, and Julia Vinokurova, who ran a 2:32:29
at Frankfurt in 2004. Returning for her third Houston appearance will be
Canadian Nicole Stevenson. She competed in the half here last year and
placed second in the 2004 marathon at 2:33:37, the year's fastest
performance for a Canadian woman.
The accompanying Aramco Houston Half-Marathon will host the USA Men's Half
Marathon Championship for the second consecutive year. With a national title
at stake and $52,100 in prize money --of which $21,000 will be reserved for
the national championship purse-- the race is attracting a deep field of
some 50 U.S. men.
Early registrants include Team USA Minnesota members Matt Gabrielson, 27,
and Jason Lehmukuhle, 28, who finished in third and fourth last year, only
two seconds apart. Peter Gilmore, who finished 11th in Houston in the 2005
half, also plans to compete.
On the women's side, defending champion Olga Romanova, 25, of Russia, will
attempt to better last year's 1:12:36 winning performance.
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