PEACHTREE CHAMPIONS HEADED TO UTICA BOILERMAKER 15-K
By David Monti
(c) 2012 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved - used with permission.

(06-Jul) -- The athletes who won the AJC Peachtree Road Race titles on July 4 in Atlanta will only get a short rest before competing in Sunday's 35th Utica Boilermaker 15-K in Upstate New York.  The event, which recorded over 11,000 finishers last year, opens the 2012/2013 season of the Professional Road Running Organization (PRRO) Circuit.

Kenya's Peter Cheruiyot Kirui and Ethiopia's Mamitu Daska won last Wednesday's Peachtree crowns in 27:37 and 32:22, respectively, and each earned $15,000 in prize money.  Daska also earned the 2011/2012 PRRO Circuit bonus of $10,000 for winning two PRRO events within the same season (she also won the Lilac Bloomsday 12-K back in May).  The Peachtree event serves at the series' final.

According to elite athlete coordinator Dick Mattia, neither Kirui nor Daska will have an easy time repeating their Peachtree victories.  Kirui will go up against compatriots Shadrack Kosgei, Silas Sang, Samuel Ndereba, Daniel Salel, Henry Rutto and Robert Letting, plus Ethiopians Tilahun Regassa and Birhanu Gedefa.   There are also three strong Moroccans in the race: Mohamed El Hachimi, Ahmed Baday and Abderrahime Bouramdane.  Daska faces compatriot Belainesh Gebre, and Kenyans Lineth Chepkurui, Risper Gesabwa, and Hellen Jemutai.

The top Americans entered are Jeffrey Eggleston, Brendan Martin and Ian Burrell on the men's side, and Lindsey Scherf, Katie DiCamillo and Stephanie Pezzullo on the women's side.  Scherf was fourth at Peachtree while Pezzullo was fifth at last year's Boilermaker.  Maegan Krifchin, who was fourth at this race last year, has been forced to scratch with a knee injury.

The last Americans to win the Boilermaker were Ed Eyestone in 1991 and Maria Trujillo in 1990.

ENDS