Veracruz embraces World Half
Marathon 
Sean Wallace-Jones in Veracruz

11 November - Veracruz, Mexico &#150; The rarefied
atmosphere of the World Half Marathon Championships is generally vastly different from the
mass participation that has become symbolic of the big city marathons.

Here in Veracruz, the organisers of the 9th IAAF
World Half Marathon Championships have been altering all that.

Of course, the Championship races themselves remain the
domain of the world&#146;s elite runners &#150;coming to Veracruz from over 50 countries -
but around the main event it seems like the whole population of this major port on
Mexico&#146;s east coast is either running in one of the three popular races organised
before the Championships or at least planning to line the 21.095 km course that runs along
the Veracruz shoreline.

In the first of these events on Friday, thousands of
youngsters competed &#150; some running and some walking &#150; filling the streets
leading to the Faro with an athletic activity, the like of which has never been seen in
this part of Mexico.

Today, two further popular races are organised, for men and
for women in the hours leading up to the Championship races that will start with the
women&#146;s event at 8.00 am on Sunday morning, followed by the men&#146;s race at 9.30
am (local time &#150; GMT +7).

The start and finish take place alongside the historic Faro
building, which housed the government of Mexico for a short time during the 1914-1915
Mexican Revolution, when Veracruz became for the second time in its history (the first was
during la Riforma of 1858-1860) the capital of Mexico.

Today,
the Faro may be overshadowed by the towering Pemex building opposite and by the massive
hulls of the cargo vessels in the port it overlooks, but it stands out as a symbol of
Mexico&#146;s proud history.

On Sunday, the building will witness another small piece of
history, as it becomes guardian to the first edition of the IAAF World Half Marathon
Championship ever to take place out of Europe &#150; perhaps the start of another
revolution in itself.

The rarefied atmosphere of the World Half Marathon Championships is generally vastly different from the mass participation that has become symbolic of the big city marathons. Here in Veracruz, the organisers of the 9th IAAF World Half Marathon Championships have been altering all that.

Veracruz embraces World Half Marathon

Radcliffe&#146;s greatest adversary the weather
&#150; No redemption for Tergat 
Sean Wallace-Jones

11 November 2000 &#150; Veracruz, Mexico &#150; Speaking on
the eve of the 9th IAAF World Half Marathon Championships, Britain&#146;s Paula
Radcliffe says that her greatest adversary is likely to be the weather.

Radcliffe, who recently set a new European half marathon
best in the Great North Run of 1:07:07, reckons that the high humidity in the early
morning here (the women&#146;s race starts at 8.00 am local time 1500 GMT) will be her
toughest challenger.

&quot;It can really be a problem for everyone,&quot; she
asserted during the pre-race press conference today. &quot;Nothing dehydrates you so
quickly as the high humidity, so we will all have to be really careful and make sure that
we drink a lot. It will be easier for the men starting later (9.30 am) because the sun
will have burnt off some of the humidity&quot;

A sentiment echoed by local favourite Adriana Fernandez:
&quot;It is a problem,&quot; said Fernandez,&quot; but it is also an advantage for we
Mexicans. The Europeans are not really used to running in these temperatures, we
are!&quot;

Laying down the gauntlet? No worries as far as Radcliffe is
concerned.

&quot;I am not worried about the race. I have no plans to
change my tactics. I really don&#146;t think that there is anything to worry about
here.&quot;

Confident talk coming from an athlete who, despite all the
guts she shows in every race she runs, will be running just her third half marathon on
Sunday.

&quot;Of course, I still have to learn,&quot; she says,
&quot;but I think that the really strong runners are not here. Loroupe is not running, nor
is Tulu, so I reckon I can just go out there and run my race.&quot;

Defending men&#146;s champion Paul Tergat is, as usual,
rather more unassuming in his predictions: &quot;It is for sure going to be tough, because
of the weather, but no competitions is easy.

&quot;One thing is sure,&quot; he continues, &quot;this
will be no redemption for Sydney. If there is anything to redeem&#133;

&quot;This is a different race, with different pressures,
but I am determined to win. Sydney was my last race on the track. I had decided this long
before. I am not getting any younger and now I want to move on to other things and that
for me means the challenge of the marathon.&quot;

Both Radcliffe and Tergat will be competing for the $40,000
first prize put up by the IAAF for both the men&#146;s and the women&#146;s race, and
Kenya will be also targeting victory in the team competition.

Each competing country can enter five athletes and the sum
of the three best placed athletes of each country determines victory in the team event.

Kenya will be seeking to recover the men&#146;s team trophy
that it has not won since 1997, with victory in the last two editions going to the South
African teams, but the Kenyans will doubtless face strong competition from South Africa
and from a strong Ethiopian contingent led by last year&#146;s bronze medallist Tesfaye
Jifar.

In the women&#146;s team competition, the favourites must
surely be the experienced Romanian team, featuring veteran competitiors Lidia Simon, Aline
Tecuta and Cristiana Pomacu.

Kenya won the women&#146;s team event in the last two
editions, but it seems uncertain that they can repeat this performance with the relatively
unseasoned team in Veracruz, led by Susan Chepkemei. 

Japan will also be a strong contender here, with the
women&#146;s team led by Mizuki Noguchi, the silver medallist in Palermo last year.

Speaking on the eve of the 9th IAAF World Half Marathon Championships, Britain’s Paula Radcliffe says that her greatest adversary is likely to be the weather.

Radcliffe’s greatest adversary the weather – No redemption for Tergat

Paula Radcliffe and Paul Tergat launch at Veracruz
their conquest of a new future in athletics 
IAAF Release

10 November 2000 - Veracruz &#150; Athletes from forty five
counties are arriving in this ancient city of the Americas to contest on Sunday the 9th
IAAF World Half Marathon Championships. It was here, in what has since become the most
important port of Mexico, that Hernan Cortes landed in 1523 at the start of his conquest
of a land that was already home to great civilisations: the Olmec on the coast and the
Aztec in the interior.

Kenya&#146;s Paul Tergat and Great Britain&#146;s Paula
Radcliffe &#150; who are among the favourites for the conquest of the men&#146;s and
women&#146;s titles &#150; will not have a lot of time to look for the signs of this rich
history. If anything, looking at the sea which they will run alongside for the 21.095
kilometres of the course, they might imagine the fatigue and dangers that explorers have
always had to face on their expeditions of discovery.

In some ways, athletes too are explorers. They discover
daily, at the cost of hard training, the possibilities of conquest of the human body and
mind: a peaceful conquest that aims to unite and not to divide, to build rather than
destroy.

It is only a couple of weeks ago, for example &#150; when
she won the Bupa Great North Run, in England &#150; that Paula Radcliffe discovered that
she had sufficient stamina to become world champion in the half marathon. This wonderful
distance runner &#150; whose determination when she runs recalls her illustrious
compatriot David Bedford &#150; is a splendid example of the meaning of will power and the
desire to progress. At twenty-seven, she has already attempted and achieved much in the
field of sport and also in her studies at university; now she is determined to go further
still, unperturbed by her fourth place in the 10,000 metres in Sydney. For Radcliffe,
Sunday&#146;s race could well symbolise the start of a new voyage of discovery: to
determine whether she can make the move to the marathon in the near future.

For Paul Tergat too, this race in Veracruz will be an
important step towards a career as a marathon runner. The Kenyan, who is already
recognised as one of the greatest distance runners of all times, has now decided to leave
the track and concentrate on road running. The challenge that he has laid down for himself
is to transform a machine that has been built and calibrated for speed on the track &#150;
where he has had all his successes in the 5000 and 10,000 metres &#150; into something
more patient and enduring. If Tergat is successful, he could well revolutionise the world
of the marathon.

These are two of the highlights of this 9th IAAF
World Half Marathon Championships which, in addition to putting up a total of $194,000 in
prize money (from US $40,000 to the winning man and woman down to $5,000 for the sixth
place in both men&#146;s and women&#146;s races), could well decide the competitive future
of these two champions.

What an interesting coincidence that this is going to
happen in a place &#150;Veracruz &#150; where an ancient civilisation &#150; that of
Europe and Spain &#150; started five centuries ago the conquest of another world and other
civilisations.

ENDS

Athletes from forty five counties are arriving in this ancient city of the Americas to contest on Sunday the 9th IAAF World Half Marathon Championships. It was here, in what has since become the most important port of Mexico, that Hernan Cortes landed in 1523 at the start of his conquest of a land that was already home to great civilisations: the Olmec on the coast and the Aztec in the interior.

Paula Radcliffe and Paul Tergat launch at Veracruz their conquest of a new future in athletics

K.Ken Nakamura

9 November 2000 - Eight Japanese runners - Toshiyuki
Hayata, Satoshi Irifune, Jun Shida, Tatsumi Morimasa, Mizuki Noguchi, Yukiko Okamoto, Fumi
Murata and Yasuko Hashimoto - will be competing in the World Half Marathon Championships
in Veracruz this Sunday. 

Among them, the most likely to top the list is Mizuki
Noguchi who finished second to Kenyan star Tegla Loroupe in last year&#146;s edition of
the event with a personal record of 1:09:12. 

One month after the Championships she won the 1999 Nagoya
half marathon with another personal best: 1:08:30. This year Noguchi was third behind
Naoko Takahashi and South Africa&#146;s Elana Meyer in the Sapporo half marathon with
1:10:36. 

Yukiko Okamoto, captain of the Oki Electric Miyazaki track
team is also running well this year. She is teammate to Yuko Kawakami (a national 10,000m
record holder) and won the 2000 corporate half marathon championships in March with a meet
record of 1:09:12. Fumi Murata was third with 1:09:26 in the same race. In the last
month&#146;s national championships, Okamoto won the 10,000m with a PR of 32:06.42.
Veracruz will be her second World Half Marathon Championships, having finished 9th
in 1998. 

On the men&#146;s side Satoshi Irifune was second in the
2000 corporate half marathon championships with 1:01:36. In the same race Tatsumi Morimasa
was 5th in 1:01:49. Irifune represented Japan at the 1999 World Championships
at the 10,000m where he finished 20th. Earlier this year when the Kyocera track
team was dissolved, Irifune joined Kanebo track team, becoming a team-mate to Toshinari
Takaoka, who was 7th at the 10,000m in Sydney. 

The most intriguing runner of them all is Toshiyuki Hayata,
a 2:08:07 marathon runner, who is also a former national half marathon record holder
(1:00:42). He has run in the World Half Marathon Championships twice, finishing 5th
in 1996 and 14th in 1999. This year, Hayata placed third in the Tokyo City half
marathon in 1:01:57. 

When Toshiyuki Hayata finished third behind Koichi
Morishita and Takeyuki Nakayama in the 1992 Tokyo marathon, he was suddenly heralded as
the next great marathon hope. However, since 1992, his career has been like a roller
coaster ride, with the low points, unfortunately, very badly timed: 1996 and 2000 Olympic
marathon qualifiers. 

He was 30th in the 1995 Fukuoka marathon and
dropped out of the 1996 Tokyo marathon, both of which were Olympic qualifying races. For
the 2000 Olympic qualifying races he had more luck - 7th in the 1999 Fukuoka
marathon in 2:10:38 and 9th in the 2000 Lake Biwa marathon with 2:12:14.
However, it was not enough to clinch a spot on the Olympic team. 

Toshiyuki Hayata was born on May 2, 1968 in Gifu and
attended the Gifu high school of business; which was also Olympic marathon champion Naoko
Takahashi&#146;s alma mater. Initially a Baseball player in his junior high school days,
Hayata enjoyed running in high school and said, &quot;In team sports like baseball,
winning or losing is beyond my control. Whereas in an individual sport like track &amp;
field, the results reflect my own efforts.&quot; Although Hayata won both his prefecture
and district high school championships at the 5000m, he choked at the national high school
championships and failed to advance to the final. 

After high school, Hayata joined Kanebo track team.
&quot;Of all the teams I could have joined, Kanabo was the best team, and I wanted to run
for the best team.&quot; Hayata was a maverick, different from the other members on the
team; in the late eighties he was the first male runner in a corporate track team who wore
pierced earrings. 

He made a sensational marathon debut in Tokyo in 1992 when
he finished third in 2:10:37, and after two mediocre marathons Hayata had great year.
First he improved his marathon personal best to 2:10:19 at the 1994 Tokyo marathon and
gained a spot on the 1994 Asian Games marathon team. A month later, in March, at the 1994
corporate half marathon championships, Hayata set a national half marathon best with
1:01:34. At the Asian Games in October, he finished second to the 1992 Olympic champion
Hwang Young-Jo.

He was also improving over 10,000m. At the 1995 national
championships he cracked the 28:00 barrier for the first time with 27:55:01. Then in the
1995 World Championships he finished a respectable 10th in the 10,000m with
another PR of 27:53.12. However, he felt that he could never really reach the top at this
distance. In January of 1996 at the Tokyo City half marathon Hayata regained the national
best for the half marathon with 1:00:42. While he was running well at shorter distances,
he ran miserably at the marathon. Out of four marathons in 1995 and 1996, his best
position was a 30th place finish with 2:18:27. He dropped out of another three
marathons. 

After failing to make the 1996 Olympic marathon team, he
started to think about changing his training environment. In April of 1997 he cut his ties
with the Kanebo track team, whose training philosophy was geared to running ekiden, and
Hayata felt that this was interfering with his marathon preparation.

He trained alone for five months before joining Araco track
team. Then in December of 1997, Hayata made a major breakthrough with 2nd place
finish at the 1997 Fukuoka marathon in 2:08:07, the fastest time by a Japanese on his
native soil. It looked as if he finally found the right combination. However as the only
runner seriously training for marathon running, he left Araco after a year in search of
training partners. After a stint in Kumamoto, away from his family, to train with the
Kyushu Sanko track team, he joined the UniQlo track team in Hiroshima. As his quest for
the best marathon training environment continued, he recently changed his affiliation to
the Honda track team. 

With a lack of speed for the 10,000m and lack of stamina
for the marathon, Hayata&#146;s best distance may be the half marathon, and this may also
be true for Yukiko Okamoto.

Toshiyuki Hayata, Satoshi Irifune, Jun Shida, Tatsumi Morimasa, Mizuki Noguchi, Yukiko Okamoto, Fumi Murata and Yasuko Hashimoto - will be competing in the World Half Marathon Championships in Veracruz this Sunday.

Toshiyuki Hayata, his best distance may be the half marathon

Radcliffe
searching for gold in Veracruz 
IAAF


9 November 2000 - Britain's leading distance runner, Paula Radcliffe, is determined to
win her first senior world title at the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in Veracruz
this Sunday.

Radcliffe, who finished a disappointed fourth in the 10,000m Olympic final, bounced
back to win the Bupa Great North Run on October 22, in superb style. Not only did she hand
Kenya's Tegla Loroupe a rare defeat but she also smashed the European half marathon best
with a time of 67:07.

It was following that excellent performance that Radcliffe decided to postpone her
holiday and extend her racing season. &quot;I heard before the Great North Run that there
was still a vacant place on the team,&quot; said Radcliffe. &quot;I told the selectors
that I would make my decision after the Great North Run. But after my performance there I
felt it would have been silly not to try and win the gold medal in Veracruz. It will be a
good way to finish the year off by trying to win a major world title,&quot; she said. 

Radcliffe, who won the silver medal over 10,000m at the 1999 World Championships and
was a World Cross Country junior champion back in 1992, is not ready to abandon the track
for the roads just yet though. &quot;I am constantly asked about moving up to the
marathon, but I don't feel I have fulfilled my potential on the track. I will run a
marathon sometime but now, my main aim is to win the 10,000m at the next World
Championships in Edmonton.&quot;

If she wins on Sunday, Radcliffe will become the first Briton to win the event since
the inaugural edition in 1992, when Liz McColgan took the title.

Britain's leading distance runner, Paula Radcliffe, is determined to win her first senior world title at the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in Veracruz this Sunday.

Radcliffe searching for gold in Veracruz

45 countries
to compete in Veracruz&nbsp;as Paul Tergat aims for historic double 
IAAF Release


7 November 2000 - Monte Carlo&nbsp; -
Athletes from 45 countries around the world will compete in the 9th IAAF World Half
Marathon Championships in Veracruz, Mexico on Sunday 12 November.

Much of the attention in Veracruz will be
focused, though, on just one man: Kenya&#146;s Paul Tergat.

Tergat competed for the third time in the
World Half Marathon Championships last year, in Palermo and won the men&#146;s title,
despite narrowly avoiding disaster in the final 100 metres, when an official accidentally
blocked his path as he sprinted clear of South Africa&#146;s Hendrick Ramaala and
Ethiopia&#146;s Tesfaye Jifar.

Now, in Veracruz, Tergat will be attempting
to become the first man ever to win double gold in the Championships. 

Ramaala, who won silver in the last two editions is not
competing in Veracruz, so Jifar could well represent the biggest threat to Tergat, who is
the holder of the world best performance for the distance, with 59:17, set in Milan in
1998.

In the women&#146;s race, Kenya could well lose the title
that has been won by Tegla Loroupe for the past three editions.

Loroupe, who suffered food poisoning during the Sydney
Games, dashing her hopes of Olympic Marathon gold, has opted out this year, leaving the
field wild open. 

Last year&#146;s silver medallist, Mizuki Noguchi, starts
out as hot favourite, with her biggest challenger likely to be Kenya&#146;s Susan
Chepkemei.

Live Reuslts, reports and photos from
Veracruz will be available on the IAAF web site: http://www.iaaf.org/whm00/index.asp

Athletes from 45 countries around the world will compete in the 9th IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in Veracruz, Mexico on Sunday 12 November.

45 countries to compete in Veracruz as Paul Tergat aims for historic double

El Mouaziz scores runaway victory in
New York 
James Dunaway for IAAF

5 November 2000 &#150; New York - Abdelkader El Mouaziz of
Morocco scored a runaway victory today in the men's division of the New York City
Marathon, crossing the finish line in 2 hours, 10 minutes 9 seconds, 2:22 ahead of
runner-up Japhet Kosgei of Kenya. Ludmila Petrova of Russia won the women&#146;s race in
2:25:45, 100 metres ahead of fast closing Franca Fiacconi of Italy, the 1998 winner.
Runners fought swirling winds gusting to 25 miles/hr (40km/hr) for much of the way, with
the temperature around 10 Celsius - usually good for marathoning, but uncomfortably cold
when combined with the wind.

A squad of world-class pacers - including Joseph Kariuki,
Domingo Ceron, and Robert Stefko - set a fast early pace, averaging about 4:50 per mile
(3:01/km). At about 8 miles (12 km) Kenyan Jacob Losian, El Mouaziz and 1996 Olympic
champion Josia Thugwane of South Africa broke away from the 30-man lead pack with a
blazing 4:29 mile. Mouaziz kept the pressure on and going through the halfway point in
1:03:08 he had opened a 50-meter bulge on Thugwane (1:03:19) with Kenyans Kosgei, Noah
Bor, Benson Mbithi and Benedict Kimondiu and Shadrack Hoff of South Africa another 15
seconds in arrears.

El Mouaziz never looked back after that. He continued to
opened the gap steadily, and even after he slowed to an average of 5:17/mile (3:18/km)
over the final 10,000 meters his margin kept widening; everybody else was moving even more
slowly. Behind El Mouaziz were Japhet Kosgei of Kenya, in 2:12:30; Shem Kororia of Kenya,
in 2:12:33; Elijah Korir of Kenya, 2:13:00; and Abraham Assefa of Ethiopia, 2:13:16.
Two-time winners John Kagwe of Kenya and German Silva of Mexico were 10th and 14th
respectively.

In the women's race, Petrova and Fiacconi headed the lead
group for the first 8 miles (12km), where the women's field linked up with the men and
2:09.16 Russian male marathoner took over the pace-setting chores for the women. At the
halfway mark (1:12:38), the lead group had dwindled to six - Fiacconi and Petrova, Hellen
Kimutai and Florence Barsosio of Kenya, Sun Yingjie of china and Yuko Arimori of Japan.
They stayed in a group for the next 10km, until with about 11 km to go Fiacconi dropped
back (menstrual cramps, she explained after the race) while two-time winner Tegla Loroupe,
11th and 45 seconds behind at the half-marathon, began moving up.

Petrova surged in the 17th mile, covering it
5:18 (a 3:19/km pace) and again in the 19th mile, covering it in 5:12, the fastest mile of
the race and equivalent to a 3:15 km, and in the 21st mile she and Kimaiyo broke away,
with Loroupe moving past Fiacconi into third 20 seconds behind the two leaders. Loroupe
got within 8 seconds of the lead, but as they entered Central Park with 5,000m to go
Petrova slammed up the 200m hill and quickly opened up 30m on Kimaiyo.

Behind them, Loroupe's three Olympic races caught up with
her as her legs went dead, while Fiacconi's troubles had passed and she was flying. But
she couldn't catch quite catch Petrova. Okayo passed the spent Kimutai on the run-in for
third with 2:26:26; Kimutai, next, was fourth in 2:26:42 and Florence Barsosio of Kenya,
fifth in 2:27:00.

El Mouaziz, who was 7th at Sydney, won $65,000 for first
plus a $10,000 bonus for breaking 2:11. Petrova, who didn't run in Sydney, did even
better. Her time bonus for bettering 2:26 brought her $25,000 for a total of $90,000. Both
won Pontiac Aztyek automobile and a Vespa scooter. 

Men's top 10 NYC marathon

1, Abdelkader El Mouaziz, Morocco...............2:10:08 
2, Japhet Kosgei, Kenya................................2:12:30 
3, Shem Kororia, Kenya.................................2:12:33 
4, Elijah Koror, Kenya....................................2:13:00 
5, Abraham Assefa, Ethiopia..........................2:13:16 
6, Josiah Thugwane, South Africa....................2:15:25 
7, Yasuaki Yamamoto, Japan.........................2:15:37 
8, Simon Bor, Kenya......................................2:16:23 
9, Mathias Ntawurikura, Rwanda......................2:16:26 
10, John Kagwe, Kenya...................................2:17:02

Women

1, Ludmila Petrova,
Russia...............................2:25:45 
2, Franca Fiacconi, Italy...................................2:26:03 
3, Margaret Okayo, Kenya................................2:26:36 
4, Hellen Kimutai, Kenya..................................2:26:42 
5, Florence Barsosio, Kenya.............................2:27:00 
6, Tegla Loroupe, Kenya...................................2:29:35 
7, Sun Yingjie, China........................................2:30:13 
8, Kerryn McCann, Australia............................. 2:30:39 
9, Esther Kiplagat, Kenya..................................2:30:52 
10, Yuko Arimori, Japan................................... 2:31:12

Abdelkader El Mouaziz of Morocco scored a runaway victory today in the men's division of the New York City Marathon, crossing the finish line in 2 hours, 10 minutes 9 seconds, 2:22 ahead of runner-up Japhet Kosgei of Kenya.

El Mouaziz scores runaway victory in New York

Mark Ouma for IAAF

5 November 2000 &#150; Johannesburg &#150; Zimbabwe&#146;s
Honest Mutsakani ended South Africa&#146;s domination of the men&#146;s title at the Old
Mutual Soweto Marathon in Johannesburg today.

Veteran Zimbabwean Nicholas Nyengerayi set the pace in the
opening stages of the race covering 5km in 15:40, 10km in 31:57 and 15km in 48:52 minutes
before being caught and swallowed by the main leading group of 20 athletes after the half
way mark.

Issac Sindani, Frans Chauke and defending champion Joshua
Peterson took charge of the race for 5km - the only time the race was lead by South
Africans. Mutsakani and compatriot Elijah Mutandaro surged with a split of 15:34 over five
kilometres from 25km to open up a lead group. 

By 30km the contenders for the title where down to eight
athletes: Zimbabweans Mutsakani, Mutandaro and veteran Morgan Sithole, and South
Africa&#146;s Peterson, Jacob Mazibuko, Moses Rachaka, Nicky Masombuka, and Butiki
Jantjies. Peterson became the first casualty in the lead group pulling out of the race due
to a hamstring injury.

Mutsakani, Mutandaro surged again at 32 km. This time no
one took up the challenge as the pair opened up a gap. Mutandaro steadily began to fall
off the pace after 35 km. The effects of winning last Sunday&#146;s Southern Africa Half
Marathon championships in Gaborone, Botswana clearly taking its toll.

With no challenger in sight over the last four kilometres,
Mutsakani coasted home to became the first non-South African to win the men&#146;s title
since the inaugural Soweto marathon in 1993. Although he failed to break Zithulele
Sinqe&#146;s course record of 2:18:03, his winning time of 2:18:28 was enough to erase his
previous career best of 2:19:41. The runner up Masombuka came second with 2:20:10,
Mazibuko third in 2:20:19 and Rachaka fourth with 2:21:20.

&quot;The pace was quite fast for the first 25 kilometres.
After that the guys seemed to slow down. After 30m km, l realised l had a good chance of
winning. I was not afraid of Peterson even though he was the defending champion and the
All Africa Games champion. I only know the names of some of these athletes. I do not know
what they look like. So l ran my own race. 

&quot;I have been training very hard in Harare, with three
sessions a day. I wanted to finish in the top ten so that l could go back with some decent
prize money to support my family. The victory has been a great bonus,&quot; said Mutsakani
who will return home 21,000 South African Rands richer after tax deductions.

This year&#146;s Soweto marathon is Zimbabwe&#146;s most
successful appearance on an international road event. Although he fizzled after leading in
the early stages of the race Nyengerayi held on to win the veterans&#146; category of the
race. Freddy Kashiri won the men&#146;s masters&#146; category, while Samukeliso Moyo won
the women&#146;s 15km race. 

After retaining the women&#146;s title in a slow time of
2:56.47, Sarah Mahlangu challenged the race organisers to improve the quality of the
women&#146;s field in future races. &quot;Although l easily won the race, l am not all
together satisfied as l had no serious challenge throughout the race. I really wish other
South African women runners would work hard so as to give me a strong challenge in this
race.

Mahlangu has been victorious in four of the five Soweto
marathons since 1996. In 1998, she was runner up to Lesotho&#146;s Angelina Sephooa, who
this year took time off to have a baby. 

&quot;I really think the race organisers should invite some
ladies from other African countries to give me some serious challenge. I am unable to run
fast times when there is no challenge,&quot; said Mahlangu. 

&quot;Sarah is right. We need this kind of response from
our athletes. We will in future look at inviting international athletes to help develop
the quality of South Africa&#146;s women marathon runners,&quot; said Leonard Chuene, the
Athletics South Africa President.

He was full of praise for the six-member Zimbabwean
men&#146;s contingent that made its mark at the race. &quot;Our greatest achievement today
is that athletes from other African countries have begun taking our race seriously.

&quot;We always read about the Kenyans and Ethiopians
sweeping most of the prizes in races in Europe and America, but we have not seen Africans
supporting one another in races here on the continent. Today Zimbabwean athletes have made
Africans feel proud of themselves. This is good as it contributes to the African
Renaissance,&quot; said Chuene who is also Africa&#146;s Representative on the IAAF
Council.

LEADING RESULTS

Note: All Athletes are South Africans unless stated
otherwise.

Men

1. Honest Mutsakani (Zimbabwe) 2:18:28 
2. Nicky Masombuka 2:20:10 
3. Jacob Mazibuko 2:20:19 
4. Moses Rachaka 2:21:20 
5. Elijah Mutandiro (Zimbabwe) 2:22:28 
6. Patrick Mahlaya 2:22:37 
7. September Morake 2:22:47 
8. Butiki Jatjies 2:23:21 
9. Morgan Sithole (Zimbabwe) 2:23:58 
10. Samuel Molokomme 2:25:11 

Women

1. Sarah Mahlangu 2:56:47 
2. Riana van Rensburg 3:00:13 
3. Linah Mhlongo 3:00:45

Zimbabwe’s Honest Mutsakani ended South Africa’s domination of the men’s title at the Old Mutual Soweto Marathon in Johannesburg today.

Zimbabwean men make their mark on Soweto Marathon

Peter Gambaccini (Reuters)

3 November 2000 - New York - Defending champion Adriana
Fernandez of Mexico hopes to make up for a disappointing performance in the Olympics with
another run to victory in Sunday's New York City Marathon.

&quot;I want to be the the very best in the world. I want
to be number one,&quot; she said on Friday. Following her experience in Sydney, the
Mexican understands &quot;I have to take it one step at a time.&quot;

Fernandez was running smoothly and fiercely through the
first 30 kilometres of the women's marathon in Sydney, 
experiencing what she realises now was &quot;a bit of overconfidence. She was &quot;not
thinking of anything but first place.&quot; But she was in fourth, and the sight of three
runners ahead of her abruptly caused &quot;a lack of focus, a lack of concentration. My
legs started to feel heavy.&quot; She faded to 16th place.

After four days of rest, Fernandez regrouped and decided to
return to New York, where she ran all alone for the second half of 1999's race and won in
2:25:06, the second fastest time (behind Lisa Ondieki's 2:24:40 in 1992) in the history of
the New York City Marathon.

&quot;I believe my preparation for the Olympics was the
greatest I ever had in life,&quot; insists Fernandez. &quot;And I am still in 
great shape. Anything is possible.&quot;

Fernandez's strongest challengers on Sunday include two
former New York City winners, world record holder (2:20:43) Tegla Loroupe of Kenya, who
won in New York in 1994 and 1995, and Italy's Franca Fiacconi, the 1998 champion.

The field also includes Japan's Yuri Airmori, the 1992
Olympic silver medalist and 1996 bronze medalist, and Kenyan Margaret Okayo, who was
second in the 1999 Chicago Marathon with 2:26:00.

Other contenders include Australia's Kerryn McCann, whose
career best is 2:25:59, and two Chinese athletes, Sun Tingjie and Ai Dongmei, whose best
times are 2:25:45 and 2:27:30, respectively.

Fernandez is confident, but submits &quot;you can't
underestimate anybody.&quot;

Last year, she passed Fiacconi at the nine-mile mark and
kept pressing the pace because &quot;I didn't know how far back second place was. I was
scared. I didn't want anybody to catch me.&quot; She finished 2:28 ahead of runner-up
Catherine Ndereba of Kenya.

The New York City Marathon had had several male champions
from Mexico, but Fernandez was the first woman titlist

Fernandez, now 29, began running in a Mexico City park at
age 15 to keep company with her father Daniel, a former amateur boxer.

In the aftermath of her New York triumph, &quot;there are
many more women running in Mexico now,&quot; she says. &quot;They need more time for you
to see them&quot; at the world class level, &quot;but they will develop.&quot;

Defending champion Adriana Fernandez of Mexico hopes to make up for a disappointing performance in the Olympics with another run to victory in Sunday's New York City Marathon.

Fernandez out to prove herself again

Twotime winners Loroupe and Silva return to New
York 
Bert Rosethal (AP)

4 November 2000 - New York -&nbsp; To Tegla Loroupe, ``New
York is like home. It's like family.'' German Silva has the same feeling, because of the
way New Yorkers have adored him. 

New Yorkers began embracing the two marathoners in 1994.
That year, Silva won the New York City Marathon despite making a wrong turn heading toward
the finish in Central Park and Loroupe won the women's division in her marathon debut,
becoming the first female African winner of a major 26.2-mile (42.2-kilometre) race. 

A year later, they repeated as champions. Since then,
Loroupe has run the New York City Marathon three times and Silva twice. 

&quot;They felt like two little kids when they stood on
either side of me,'' race director Allan Steinfeld said of the awards ceremonies when
Loroupe and Silva were champions. &quot;New York has adopted them.'' 

Loroupe, now the holder of the world marathon best, again
heads the women's field for Sunday's race, the 25th through the city's five boroughs, and
Silva is among the top men's contenders. 

&quot;I would love to see a repeat of '94 and '95,''
Steinfeld said. ``That would be a three-peat, although not in a row.'' 

The 4-foot-11-inch (1.48-metre), 88-pound (40-kilogram)
Loroupe's most difficult competition is expected from defending champion Adriana Fernandez
of Mexico, 1998 winner Franca Fiacconi of Italy, and 1992 Olympic silver medalist and 1996
bronze medalist Yuko Arimori of Japan. 

The 5-foot-3 (1.58-metre), 112-pound (50-kilogram) Silva
will face a field that includes 1997 and 1998 champion John Kagwe of Kenya, 1996 Olympic
gold medalist Josia Thugwane of South Africa, 1999 London Marathon winner Abdelkhader El
Mouzaiz of Morocco, and Japhet Kosgei of Kenya, unbeaten in four marathons. 

Although Loroupe has not enjoyed the success in the New
York City Marathon that she had five and six years ago, the Kenyan still is considered a
major celebrity in the city. At the awards ceremonies at the Mini Marathon in Central Park
in June, which she won for the fifth time, spectators stormed the metal barricades, taking
hundreds of photographs of her. 

When people stop and ask for her autograph in the city - or
even any other place in the world - she is always agreeable. She pulls out a card with her
picture on it and signs. 

Loroupe finished seventh in the 1996 New York City
Marathon, seventh again in 1997 and third in 1998. Last year, she did not compete because
she had run the Berlin Marathon six weeks earlier, breaking her world best by four seconds
with a time of 2 hours, 20 minutes, 43 seconds, but was invited by the New York organizers
to attend the race. 

&quot;A lot of people stopped me and asked me why I wasn't
running,'' Loroupe said. &quot;Even though I didn't run, a lot of people were encouraging
me. They're always so friendly. They always wish the best for you. They remember me.''

Despite her two world records, her two New York City
Marathon victories, and wins in the London and Rome Marathons this year, Loroupe considers
her most important triumph her first Mini Marathon in 1994. 

&quot;That's when I decided to run the marathon for the
first time,'' she said. 

Unlike a year ago, Loroupe is running a marathon six weeks
after her previous marathon - a 13th-place finish at the Olympics. Not only did Loroupe
run the marathon at the Sydney Games, she also ran a semifinal and final of the 10,000
metres, placing fifth. 

The indefatigable Kenyan, whose body doesn't appear strong
enough to absorb constant pounding, followed that by running a half-marathon in England
two weeks ago, finishing second. 

She did not want to skip New York for a second straight
time. &quot;It was fixed in my mind to run New York again,'' she said. 

Loroupe was bitterly disappointed in her Olympic
performance. At 2 a.m. the day of the race, she was jarred out of her sleep by a nausea
attack. That was the only night Loroupe stayed in the Olympic village, and she thinks food
poisoning caused her illness. Otherwise, she lived in a house outside Sydney. It was at
the suggestion of the Kenyan federation that she moved into the village for the one night
and had dinner there. 

&quot;I was not happy with the federation,'' she said.
&quot;It was bad timing. ``I don't know what made me sick.'' 

Silva has experienced his own physical ailments. A knee
injury and a back muscle problem have slowed his progress in recent years. After his New
York victories, he came back in 1997 and placed fifth and in 1998 he finished fourth. Last
year, he was supposed to be a pacesetter for the first 13.1 miles (21.1 kilometres), but
wound up running 18.5 miles (29.8 kilometres) before jumping onto the lead press truck.

&quot;I told John (Kagwe) I will compete with you this
time, no more competing with cars,'' Silva said. Silva regrets stopping last year, because
he was feeling so good, and if he had continued he might have qualified for the Mexican
Olympic team. He tried again to make the Olympic team at the London Marathon in April, but
dropped out halfway through the race because of the back injury. 

The charismatic, energetic Silva is pleased at returning to
New York. &quot;I'm glad to be back here in our home, with close friends,'' he said,
including Loroupe in his remark. &quot;Some of the closest friends I have I met here. 

&quot;I've been telling Tegla we have to do it again. I'm
very motivated again.'' Much of that motivation came from training for five weeks with
world record-holder Khalid Khannouchi at Sleepy Hollow, New York. 

&quot;I learned a lot from him,'' Silva said about
Khannouchi. &quot;He's a dedicated person. You don't need much time with him to learn why
he broke the world record and wins a lot.'' 

A field of about 30,000 will start the race, and the men's
and women's winners will each receive dlrs 65,000 - an increase of dlrs 15,000 from last
year.

To Tegla Loroupe, ``New York is like home. It's like family.'' German Silva has the same feeling, because of the way New Yorkers have adored him. 

Two-time winners Loroupe and Silva return to New York

The Big Apple
gets ready to run 
James Dunaway for IAAF

3 November 2000 - New York City - The New York City
Marathon will celebrate its 30th birthday on Sunday, November 5. It has seen - and made -
a lot of history as the first of the many &quot;Big City&quot; races which flourish today
all over the world.

In 1970, 127 runners started and 55 finished on the hilly,
4-times-around-Central Park course. The entry fee was $1, and the entire race budget was
less than $1,000. Road runners were considered eccentric, if not downright crazy. The
local media totally ignored the race.

By 1975, the number of entrants had grown to 534, but it
wasn't until 1976, when the race became a run through all five of the City's boroughs and
over five bridges, that it really took off. Suddenly, there were more than 2,000 men and
women running, and tens of thousands of spectators lining the course and cheering them on.
The men's race was won by Bill Rodgers in a more-than-respectable 2:10:10.

Next year there were nearly 5,000 entrants. In 1979, the
number was close to 10,000, and Grete Waitz of Norway set a women's world best of 2:32:30.
Waitz went on to win nine New York City Marathons and further lower her world mark in two
of them.

On Sunday, following almost the same course laid out in
1976 and slightly modified in 1977 and 1978, more than 30,000 runners and upwards of a
million spectators will be part of what has become a civic festival - one during which
normally brusque, impatient New Yorkers surprise out-of-town visitors and themselves by
becoming friendly, gracious hosts. Runners from every U.S. state and 107 countries will be
covered by more than 1,000 journalists from 45 countries. And unlike most old-time
marathons, almost all those who start will finish (98% did last year).

First place will be worth $65,000 to both men's and women's
winners, plus a new Pontiac automobile, a Vespa motor scooter and time bonuses which go as
high as $65,000.

Sunday's race has strong fields in
both the men's and women's races. Four men have run under 2:08: Japhet Kosgei, a
32-year-old Kenyan who didn't start running until his late 20s, won the 1999 Rotterdam
Marathon in 2:07:09 and this year's Tokyo Marathon in 2:07:15; Josiah Thugwane, 29, the
1996 Olympic champion from South Africa, with a best of 2:07:28; 31-year-old Moroccan
Abdelkader El Mouaziz, who won London in 1999 in 2:07:57 and has run 2:07:33; and Joseph
Kahugu, a 29-year-old Kenyan who has run 2:07:59. 

1999 winner Joseph Chebet withdrew this week with an
injury. But John Kagwe, a Kenyan who lives and trains in nearby Philadelphia and won here
in 1997 and 1998 is back, and reportedly in good form. Another two-time winner is Mexico's
German Silva, who won in 1994 and 1995. In addition to these six, another 10 entrants have
broken 2 hours 10 minutes.

The women's race doesn't have as much depth, but there is
plenty of quality.

You start with Kenya's Tegla Loroupe, who set a world best
of 2:20:43 winning at Berlin in 1999, and who has run more sub-2:23 marathons (4) than any
other woman. Loroupe also won here in 1994 and 1995. Most recently,&nbsp; Loroupe became
ill just before the Olympic Marathon in Sydney and struggled in 13th. Amazingly, she
managed to make it through the heats of the Olympic10,000 and finished fifth in the final.

1999 winner Adriana Fernandez of Mexico is also
back for another bite of the apple. She barely missed the course record last year, as she
ran alone and unchallenged for the last half of the race and won in 2:25:06. Her best of
2:24:06 is more than three minutes slower than Loroupe's, but she runs tough. Like
Loroupe, she had a bad Olympic marathon, finishing 16th in 2:30:51.

Two other former winners are back. Tall, blonde Franca
Fiacconi of Italy has finished in the top four for the past four years here, winning in
1998 in 2:25:17, still her best time. And Anuta Catuna (spell it backwards) won in 1996
and hopes her even-paced style can do it again.

Other likely high finishers include Kerryn McCann of
Australia, 11th in Sydney six weeks ago; Margaret Okayo of Kenya, a 2:26:00 runner and
winner of San Diego's Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in June; Hellen Kimutai of Kenya, only 22 but
winner of the Vienna City Marathon this year in 2:26:54; and China's Sun Yingjie (2:25:45)
and Ai Dongmei (2:27:30).

The temperature expected for Sunday is close to ideal, with
a predicted high of 12-13 Celsius (55 F), but a north wind might slow the runners. If the
wind isn't too strong, the course records - 2:08:01 by Juma Ikangaa, 1989 and 2:24:40 by
Lisa Ondieki in 1992 - could be in danger.

The New York City Marathon will celebrate its 30th birthday on Sunday, November 5. James Dunaway previews the race.

The Big Apple gets ready to run

Bert Rosenthal (AP)

3 November 2000 &#150; New York - Steve Moneghetti, the 1997 marathon bronze medallist
at the 1997 World Championships, has had a huge influence on fellow Australian Kerryn
McCann, one of the leading women in Sunday's New York City Marathon.

First, McCann got up in the middle of the night during the World Championships at
Seville, Spain, to watch on television as Moneghetti finished third. By the end of the
race, she was emotionally drained.

&quot;Tears were running down my face,'' said McCann, eight months pregnant at the
time. ``I wanted to get my running shoes back on. I couldn't wait.

&quot;That was an inspiration. I felt like I wanted to run so badly, but I couldn't
because I was so big.''

Her attitude was a turnabout from a year earlier, when McCann finished a disappointing
28th at the Atlanta Olympics and was prepared to give up running.

&quot;I didn't want to run anymore - not after running 2:33 or 2:34 all the time,'' she
said.

McCann had to wait longer than expected after the birth of her son Benton to resume
running because she ruptured her pelvis during the delivery.

For eight weeks, she couldn't even jog, but six months after the delivery, she was
running again. Her total of about 12 months away from competition was a refreshing break
from all the training and travelling, and just the tonic McCann needed.

Suddenly, her times began dropping - about five minutes for the half-marathon, eight to
nine minutes for the marathon.

By 1999, she had lowered her 10,000-meter best to 31:55.94, and this year, she set a
personal best and national record for 5,000 meters of 15:08 at Brisbane two weeks before
the Olympics; set a national record for the half-marathon of 1:07:48 at Tokyo; and set her
marathon best of 2:25:59 at London.

At London in April, McCann led by 20 metres at the 29.0-kilometre mark before fading to
fifth, but her time was a considerable improvement over her 2:28:44 seventh-place finish
at the same race in 1999.

Having run London and the Olympic marathon in her home country, in which she finished
11th at 2:28:37, two places ahead of world marathon best holder Tegla Loroupe of Kenya,
McCann wasn't planning on running a third marathon this year.

But she recovered so well from Sydney and felt in such great shape that she decided to
run one more. There still are several notable marathons on the world calendar, and McCann
chose New York after a conversation with Moneghetti, who retired after finishing 10th at
the Olympics.

&quot;He said one of his regrets was that he never ran the New York City Marathon,''
McCann said. &quot;That convinced me.''

So here she is, having arrived in the United States at Los Angeles on Oct. 25 and at
New York last Sunday to acclimate herself to the time change and all the other adjustments
of going from one side of the world to the other.

While the New York experience will be different for McCann, it probably won't match the
emotion of the Sydney marathon. 

&quot;Running into the Olympic stadium was a magic moment,'' she said. &quot;It was
everything I had expected. As I was coming through the tunnel, I could hear the rumble of
the crowd.''

The New York race will be comparatively easy for McCann &#150; at least mentally.

At Sydney, there was an enormous amount of pressure because of the expectations on her
in her home country. Although she was ranked only 13th among the Olympic entrants, one
newspaper said she was capable of winning the bronze medal.

&quot;I felt bad because I was in the best shape of my life. You always dream of doing
better than you can,'' she said.

In New York, McCann is not expected to win - that status belongs to Loroupe - but she
feels she will do well despite having run a marathon only six weeks ago.

&quot;It was very hard leading up to Sydney,'' she said. &quot;I was depressed because
I wanted to be home with my family. I feel better here because I have my family.''

Steve Moneghetti, the 1997 marathon bronze medallist at the 1997 World Championships, has had a huge influence on fellow Australian Kerryn McCann, one of the leading women in Sunday's New York City Marathon.

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