Jim Estes
USA Track & Field
Associate Director, Marketing & LDR Programs
317-713-4661
[email protected]
Mack win's USA Men's 8 km Championship
INDIANAPOLIS - Bobby Mack (Raleigh, N.C.) used a late surge to take the USA Men's 8 km Championships Saturday in Carmel, Ind. Mack ran 23:05 to win his first USA title at the championships that were hosted by the Carmel Marathon Championship Weekend.
A large pack together from the start and after passing the first mile in 4:27, a group of about 15 men settled in behind prerace favorites Aaron Braun (Flagstaff, Ariz.) and Josh Moen (Minneapolis, Minn.), with Mack, James Carney (Boulder, Colo.), Patrick Smyth (Mammoth Lakes, Calif.), Jason Hartmann(Boulder, Colo.) and Nick Arciniaga (Flagstaff, Ariz.), close by.
Shortly after passing four miles in 18:30, the pace began to heat up and Braun was the first to make a serious move to the front, opening a two-stride gap on the field with about a half-mile to go. Mack was the only one to respond and quickly overtook Braun before going on to a six-second win. Braun took his third USA Championship runner-up finish this season, running 23:11.
Carney finished one second behind Braun to take third, while Christo Landry (Ann Arbor, Mich.) took fourth in 23:16 and Hartmann rounded out the top-five in 23:19.
Video coverage
Highlights of the USA 8 km Championships will be available in cooperation with RunnerSpace.com atwww.USARunningCircuit.com.
About the USARC
The USA Men's 8 km Championship were the sixth stop on the 2011 USA Running Circuit (USARC) and will feature $20,000 in prize money with the Mack earning $5,000 for the win. The 2011 USARC is a USA Track & Field road series, featuring USA Championships from one mile to the marathon and attracts the best U.S. distance runners. The circuit features ten events for men and nine for women. Braun now leads the men's circuit with 34 points.
The 2011 USARC is a USA Track & Field road series, featuring USA long distance running championships and for the first time will include the USA Cross Country Championships. The USARC attracts the best U.S. distance runners and has ten events for men and nine for women.
The 2011 USARC will feature more than $450,000 in circuit prize money with U.S. athletes competing for the right to represent Team USA in various international competitions.
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 ($6,000, $4,000, and $2,500) for the top three men and women point scorers overall.
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 $6 million dollars to U.S. distance runners.
For more information on the 2011 USA Men's 8 km Championships visit www.usatf.org.
About USA Track & Field
USA Track & Field (USATF) is the National Governing Body for track & field, long-distance running and race walking in the United States. USATF encompasses the world's oldest organized sports, the World's #1 Track & Field Team, the most-watched events at the Olympics, the #1 high school and junior high school participatory sport, and more than 30 million adult runners in the United States: www.usatf.org.
