09-24-2008

Contact:
Jim Estes
Associate Director of LDR and Marketing
USA Track & Field
317-713-4661

INDIANAPOLIS - Two-time USA 10 km champion Katie McGregor (St. Louis Park, Minn.) leads the field at Saturday's USA Women's 8 km Championships in Akron, Ohio. The championship race will be an invitation-only event, held in conjunction with the Road Runner Akron Marathon.

McGregor will face a strong field that includes 2008 USA 20 km champion Jill Steffens (Athens, Ga.); two-time Olympian and 2008 20 km runner-up Elva Dryer (Gunnison, Colo.); and two-time USA 8km champion Amy Rudolph (Providence, R.I.).

The runner-up at last weekend's USA 5 km Championships, Renee Metivier-Baille (Flagstaff, Ariz.) will lead additional contenders Molly Huddle (Providence, R.I.), Carrie Messner-Vickers (Vail, Colo.) and Rebecca Donaghue (State College, Pa.), who respectively finished third, fourth and fifth last weekend in Providence.

The depth of the field continues with the addition of 2008 Olympic steeplechaser Lindsey Anderson (Ogden, Utah) and Sara Slattery (Boulder, Colo.), the 2005 NCAA Division I champion at 10,000 meters.

Sponsored by the Akron Community Foundation, the championship will start at 7:30 a.m. and will feature a total of $23,500 in prize money with $7,500 going to the champion.

The USA Women's 8 km Championship is the seventh stop on the 2008 USA Running Circuit (USARC) for women. The USARC is a USA Track & Field road series that features USA Championships from 5 km to the marathon and attracts the best U.S. distance runners. The fourteenth edition for the men and thirteenth for the women, the 2008 USARC has seven events for men and nine events for women. Deena Kastor leads the women's standings with 45 points and Dan Browne leads the men with 44 points.

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 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 $4 million dollars to U.S. distance runners.

For more information on the 2008 USA Women's 8 km Championships visit www.usatf.org.