Projo Running Blog

Recent CVS Caremark Downtown 5K winner and 2008 Olympian Amy Yoder-Begley and former URI star Heidi Westerling will help represent Team USA at the 18th IAAF World Half Marathon Championships, to be held Sunday in Birmingham, England. Westerling, who hails from Acworth, N.H., replaces Desiree Davila (Rochester Hills, Mich.), who withdrew after reportedly re-aggravating an injury to the iliotibial band in her leg.

Joining Begley and Westerling on the women's team will be Serena Burla (Baldwin, Mo.), Amy Hastings (Mammoth Lakes, Calif.) and Elva Dryer (Gunnison, Colo.).

Olympian Dathan Ritzenhein leads the U.S. men's contingent that also includes recent USA 20K champion Brett Gotcher (Flagstaff, Ariz.), Andrew Carlson (Flagstaff, Ariz.); Scott Bauhs (Chico, Calif.) and James Carney (Boulder, Colo.).

The IAAF World Half Marathon Championships - which will feature 47 IAAF Member Federations, the most since 2004 - will air on Universalsports.com on Sunday at 4 a.m. ET.

A total of $245,000 will be offered in prize money, with $30,000 going to the individual champions and $15,000 to the respective men's and women's team champions. The top finish for a U.S. team at this event came last year in Rio de Janeiro where the Team USA women finished fourth. The best team finish for a U.S. men's team was sixth in both 2005 and 2006.

For more information on Team USA at the 2009 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships, visit www.usatf.org.

 Tags  Amy Yoder-Begley Heidi Westerlin IAAF World Half Marathon Championships

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