FIREWORKS SET TO FLY AT PEACHTREE
By Chris Lotsbom
(c) 2010 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved - used with permission

Though it may not yet be as much a part of Americana as apple pie, hot dogs, or baseball, it's hard to find a better way to celebrate Independence Day in America than running or watching a road race.  Whether it's a local 5-K or a national championship, hundreds of thousands of Americans attend and participate in road races across the country every year on the Fourth of July. 

This July 4th, the 41st running of the AJC Peachtree Road Race will be the center of road racing attention, bringing thousands out to cheer some 50,000 competitors, including American men who are trying to win the USA 10-K championship title within an international field.

MEN'S PREVIEW -

This year's international field is headlined by defending champion Sammy Kitwara of Kenya, whose 27:22 mark last year was the second fastest winning time in race history.  The 23 year-old Kitwara already has two road racing victories in North America this year: the ING Bay to Breakers 12-K in San Francisco, and the Abraham Rosa International 10-K in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico.

The 2009 IAAF World Cross Country Champion Gebre Gebremariam of Ethiopia will join Kitwara in the field, making his Peachtree debut.  Gebremariam only has run one 10-K race on the roads, but it was a good one.  He won the Healthy Kidney 10-K in New York City in a course record 27:42 last May.  Possessing a vicious kick, he is a sure to be contender in Atlanta.

Fellow Ethiopian Tadese Tola will also be striving for the $15,000 first place prize.  Tola, whose personal best over 10-K is 27:48, will be trying for his first victory since winning the Paris Marathon in a personal best 2:06:41 on April 11. 

The AJC Peachtree Road Race will also play host to the USA Men's 10 km Championship for the second consecutive year.  Mo Trafeh, who has had a breakthrough year, is eyeing his second national championship title after winning the USA 15-K crown last March at the Gate River Run in Jacksonville, Fla.  Trafeh also placed third at the NYC Half-Marathon last March and eighth at the Healthy Kidney 10-K last May.

Also running will be Ed Moran, who is coming off of a second place finish at last week's USA Outdoor Championships at 10,000m in Des Moines, Iowa. The resident of Williamsburg, Va., will try to improve upon his sixth place American showing at Peachtree last year (15th overall).  Team USA-Minnesota's Patrick Smyth, who placed one spot behind Moran in last week's 10,000m championship, is also in the field. 

Other Americans set to compete include Olympic steeplechaser Anthony Famiglietti, former USA half-marathon champion James Carney, and 10,000m Olympian Jorge Torres, among others.

The USA 10 km Championship has a prize money purse of $30,000, with the top American male receiving $10,000.  American men are also eligible for the overall prize money purse.


WOMEN'S PREVIEW -

Like on the men's side, the 2009 AJC Peachtree Road Race Champion will also be returning to defend her title.  Kenya's Lineth Chepkurui, who won a sprint to the finish in 2009 narrowly edging Meseret Mengistu and Alice Timbilili, is arguably the world's best road runner right now.  Chepkurui, 22, has already won four major road races in the United States this year, including the Lilac Bloomsday Run where she set a world best for 12 k.  If she wins the Peachtree, she will earn a share of the 2010 PRRO Circuit bonus of $10,000, awarded to the Peachtree winner if her or she has won another PRRO circuit event. 

But, in order to get the win and take home the bonus, Chepkurui will have to fend off a group of proven runners vying for their first Peachtree title.  Bolder Boulder champion Mamitu Daska and 2008 Boston Marathon champion Dire Tune, both of Ethiopia, will be making their debuts on the Peachtree course.  Joining them will be last year's third place finisher, Timbilili, and Kim Smith, the New Zealand record holder in the marathon.  Smith, who has the fourth fastest personal best of the field, is coming off a fifth place showing at the NYRR New York Mini-10-K.

  NOTE: To see a complete list of winners of the AJC Peachtree Road Race, go to this link: http://www.arrs.net/HP_Pch10.htm --Ed.

ENDS