TOP ATHLETES SET FOR FALMOUTH TOMORROW
By Chris Lotsbom
(c) 2010 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved (Used by permission)

FALMOUTH, MASS. (14-Aug) -- The 38th running of the CIGNA Falmouth Road Race will take off tomorrow from the draw bridge at Woods Hole with any one of a number of elites capable of taking home the $10,000 first prize.

Making his Falmouth Road Race debut will be Gebre Gebremariam of Ethiopia, the 2009 IAAF World Cross Country champion. Gebremariam is currently on a hot streak. He won last week's TD Bank Beach to Beacon 10-K in Cape Elizabeth, Me., adding to his earlier victories at the Healthy Kidney 10-K in New York City and the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta. He's undefeated in three USA road racing appearances.

Also running for the first time at Falmouth will be Allan Kiprono, Wilson Chebet, and Stephen Kibet. The Kenyan trio finished second, third, and fourth, respectively, behind Gebremariam last week in Cape Elizabeth, but gave the Ethiopian a run for his money, sticking with him until the very end.

Falmouth will only be Kiprono's second race in the United States, but could very well turn out to be his first win. Part of the Kimbia training group, Kiprono trains with current Falmouth course record holder Gilbert Okari.

Also on the start line will be two champions of World Marathon Majors races, Kenyan Martin Lel and American Meb Keflezighi. Lel, a two-time winner of the ING New York City and Virgin London Marathons, placed seventh last week in his first race since suffering a stress fracture over the winter. Similar to Lel, Keflezighi has faced troubles with injuries recently. The reigning ING New York City Marathon champion is recovering from recent hip and hamstring problems, but still hopes to improve upon his fifth place showing here a year ago.

On the women's side, one athlete stands above the rest: Lineth Chepkurui. The 22 year-old Kenyan has won six road races in the United States this year, and looks to make Falmouth her seventh. Chepkurui set a course record last week in Cape Elizabeth, and is clearly in top racing form.

Experience may help Chepkurui's compatriot Edna Kiplagat, who placed third here in 2009 and 2006. The 2010 winner of the Utica Boilermaker placed third behind Chepkurui and Ethiopia's Wude Ayalew last weekend in Cape Elizabeth. Ayalew, running her second Falmouth, will try to improve upon her 12th place showing in 2007.

Two-time Olympic silver medalist and four-time Falmouth champion Catherine Ndereba is also in the field. She finished sixth at the Beach to Beacon 10-K last Saturday.

The course records for the 7-mile point-to-point course from Woods Hole to Falmouth Heights were both set by Kenyans. Gilbert Okari holds the men's record of 31:08 from 2004, while Lornah Kiplagat (before she became a Dutch citizen) set the women's record of 35:02 in 2000.

The race was founded in 1973, spanning the distance between two bars, The Captain Kidd in Woods Hole and the Brothers Four in Falmouth Heights.