Flanagan second, Kipchirchir third at 15 km championships in Florida

Results

(20-Mar) Fifteen Coloradans competed in today's USATF 15 km Championships in Jacksonville, Florida.  The championships were hosted by the Gate River Run. 

Leading the locals were Lindsay Flanagan (Boulder; Asics) who finished second in the women's race and Shadrack Kipchirchir (Colorado Springs; American Distance Project) who placed third in a very close men's race.  

Flanagan ran 49:14 to only trail Emily Sisson of Arizona who ran 48:09 to win the national title.  Fellow Coloradans Margareta Montoya (Boulder; Roots Running Project) and Laura Thweatt (Superior; Saucony / Boulder TC) also nabbed top ten finishes as they finished seventh and eighth, respectively.  Montoya stopped the clock at 50:25 with Thweatt just six seconds back.

In the men's race the top six all finished within four seconds of each other. Kipchirchir ran 43:55 as Utah's Clayton Young ran 43:52 to win the title just three seconds ahead of Kipchirchir.  Squeezing between them was Abbabiya Simbassa of Arizona who stopped the clock at 43:54.

Defending champion Frank Lara (Westminster, CO; Roots Running Project) outkicked Reed Fischer (Boulder, CO; Tinman Elite) over the final stretch of the race to claim seventh overall in 44:02, while Fischer finished with the same time in eighth.

Click here to see the Colorado results scoreboard and complete championship results.

Race highlights and coverage of the USATF 15 km Championships presented by Toyota, hosted by the Gate River Run, are available and can be viewed with a +PLUS subscription on USATF.TV.