For Immediate Release
Thursday, September 3, 2009
   
Contact:
Jim Estes
USA Track & Field
Associate Director of LDR & Marketing
317-713-4661; [email protected]

Carney, Swope set to defend USA 20 km titles

INDIANAPOLIS - James Carney (Boulder, Colo.) and Jill Swope (formerly Jill Steffens) of Athens, Ga., are set to defend their titles Monday at the USA 20 km Championships in New Haven, Conn. The championships will be hosted by the 31st Stratton Faxon New Haven Road Race.

Also looking to take home the women's title will be 2008 Olympic marathoner Magdalena Lewy Boulet (Oakland, Calif.); Kelly Jaske (Portland, Ore.), the 2009 USA Half Marathon runner-up behind Boulet; and Ilsa Paulson (New York, N.Y.), the fourth-place finisher at this year's USA 7 Mile Championships.

In the men's race, Carney will face 2009 USA Half Marathon third-place finisher Bret Gotcher (Flagstaff, Ariz.) and 2009 USA 25 km runner-up Jason Hartmann (Boulder, Colo.).

In addition to the national championship titles, athletes will be competing to secure positions for the Team USA World Half Marathon Championships to be held October 11, in Birmingham, England.

About the USARC

The USA 20 km Championships is the seventh stop on the 2009 USA Running Circuit (USARC) and will pay $40,000 in U.S. prize money with $8,000 going to the respective champions.

The 2009 USARC is a USA Track & Field road series featuring USA Championships from one mile to the marathon, which attracts the best U.S. distance runners. The 2009 USARC has ten events each for men and women.  Boulet currently leads the women's standings with 49 points, while Anthony Famiglietti (Knoxville, Tenn.) leads the men with 39 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 $6 million dollars to U.S. distance runners.

For more information on the 2009 USA 20 km Championships visit www.usatf.org.

About USA Track & Field
 
USA Track & Field (USATF) is the National Governing Body for track and field, long-distance running and race walking in the United States. USATF encompasses the world's oldest organized sports, some of the most-watched events of Olympic broadcasts, the #1 high school and junior high school participatory sport and more than 30 million adult runners in the United States.
 
For more information on USATF, visit www.usatf.org
 
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