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Monday, May 21, 2001 News story edited for length by Women in Motion Local Alberta Athletes Follow Behind the Japanese World Class RunnersJAPANESE RUNNERS DOMINATE FIELD Japanese runners were testing the course for their return for the 8th IAAF World Championships In Athletics, winning both men's and women's events, finishing 1-2-3-4-5 in the men's. With the Japanese and American World Championships team runners here, the race regulars were overshadowed. Terra Giggey of Edmonton finished second in the women's event with a time of 3:02:46, but was 11 minutes behind winner Takami Ominami of Japan even if she was 10 minutes ahead of third-place Fariyal Samson of Calgary in third. With five Japanese and an American taking up the top six spots in the men's event, Tom Messier of Calgary was seventh and Stefan Fekner of Edmonton was eighth. They were 11 and 12 minutes behind sixth-place Tom Morris of the USA and 23 minutes-plus back of the winner. In all, more than 2,000 runners left the starting line at Commonwealth Stadium at 7 a.m. in several different categories. Clark Shipka of Hinton won the men's half-marathon in 1:17:55 with Jennifer Madsen of Edmonton winning the women's half-marathon in 1:32.37. The men's-only 35-km event was won by Craig Abbott of Cold Lake 2:48:34 while the 10-km event went to Clive Burke of Edmonton (40:49) with Colette Novicki of Calgary (53:41), winning the women's section. |