Champions Set to Defend at Beach to Beacon

CAPE ELIZABETH, Maine – (June 17, 2010) – The 2010 TD Bank Beach to Beacon 10K will feature both reigning champions, Kenyans Ed Muge and Irene Limika, against a strong field of world class athletes, race officials have announced.

The TD Bank Beach to Beacon 10K,
set for Saturday, August 7 in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, is again
attracting some of the world’s top elite runners to Maine’s scenic
coastline for the 13th edition of the race founded by 1984 Olympic
champion Joan Benoit Samuelson, a Maine native and running icon.

“It’s good to have both Ed Muge and Irene Limika coming back to defend,” said Larry Barthlow,
the TD Bank Beach to Beacon 10K’s elite athlete coordinator. “Ed will
be gunning for his third straight title, which would tie a men’s
record, and if Irene thought she had it tough with running legend
Berhane Adere of Ethiopia in the field last year, she’s going to find
the going even more difficult this time around. We’re going to have
really competitive fields in both races.”

Last
year at TD Bank Beach to Beacon, Limika, 30, ran a personal-best of 32
minutes, 6 seconds to cruise to victory. Her biggest challenger this
year may come from Emily Chebet of Kenya, who just happens to be Muge’s wife.

Relative
unknown Chebet, 24, made a big splash on the world stage in March with
a sprint finish to win the senior race at the 2010 IAAF World Cross
Country Championships in Poland. She followed up earlier this month by
setting a course record 15:12 at the Freihofer’s Run for Women 5K in
Albany, N.Y.

Also in the field is Edna Kipligat,
30, of Kenya, who finished second behind Chebet at Freihofer’s and won
the 2010 Los Angeles Marathon in her second marathon ever. Not to be
outdone, Lineth Chepkurui, 22, of Kenya set a world record 38:07 in winning the 2010 Bay to Breakers 12K.

Wude Ayalew Yimer,
23, of Ethiopia, returns to the TD Bank Beach to Beacon 10K for the
first time since 2007, when she came in as a race favorite but got
tangled with another runner early in the race, never recovered and
finished a disappointing fourth. Her career has continued to elevate
since then. She took home the 10,000m bronze medal at the 2009 World
Championships in Berlin, and set a new course record (31:58) to win the
2010 World 10K Run in Bangalore, India, beating the defending champ in
the homestretch.

Barthlow said he expects to add a few Eastern European runners and a few more Americans to go along with Rebecca Donaghue, 33, one of the top U.S. distance runners.

“I
like what we have going in the women’s race with some of the hottest
runners out there entered,” he said. “I think there are four or five
women with a legitimate shot to win, and you never know who else might
pop in there.”

On the men’s side, Barthlow is working to secure the entry of Martin Lel
of Kenya, who is one of the world’s top marathoners with three Flora
London Marathon and two ING New York City Marathon titles. Lel, who
finished fifth in the marathon at the 2008 Olympics, won the Mardi Gras
Half Marathon earlier this year but pulled out the London Marathon in
April due to injury.