News

Dec. 6, 2009 - Course de l'Escalade, Geneva, Switzerland

Hilary runs strong race for 9th in Geneva

Geneva crowds were as vibrant as ever for this year’s Escalade, as they cheered on some of the world’s best athletes in the elite races.

One of this year’s featured athletes was Deratu Tulu, recent winner of the New York City marathon and double Olympic Gold Medalist in the 10,000m on the track. However, although victorious in NYC, Tulu couldn’t pull it off in Geneva with fierce competitors perhaps taking advantage of her lack of speed coming from the marathon.

Top competitors from Ethiopia, Kenya, Poland, Hungary and Canada made up the lead group of about 10 athletes who battled around the challenging course, featuring several short steep uphills within the winding cobblestones streets of this historic city’s Old Town.

Caroline Chepkwony of Kenya broke the tape first in a time of 15:29, just a few seconds ahead of Tulu, while her fellow country women Jane Muia took 3rd. These three women set a commanding pace in the second half of the race to break the lead pack open and spacing out the next competitors.

Although Hilary couldn’t manage to stay up with these strong leading women, she ran a pace that exceeded that of 2008, and had a strong finish claiming 9th place in 16:28.
"This year's competition seemed to be much stronger than previous years, which is great because it makes for a better race and forces everyone to raise their game. So, although I was aiming for a higher place, I am happy to have run faster than last year and I got another good race effort in."

Next week’s Course de Noel in Sion, Switzerland will end off the Swiss road racing season for Hilary, when she will then change her focus to the indoor track season.

See full results of Escalade here.

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