PUBLISHED 10/24/2006
When we got a release yesterday saying that 44 men, along with 25 women, had qualified for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials with their performances at the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon, we held back on posting it here because, frankly ... we didn't believe it and assumed it was a mistake. It's been a long time since any throng even close to that size ran qualifying times at a major urban marathon. Actually, we can remember occasions when NO ONE did.
But then we checked the official Chicago results and, yeah, those numbers are accurate. There was a whole battalion of American men bunched closely together running 2:19s, 2:20s, and 2:21s in Chicago. Hopefully, some of them can break through even further in their next 26.2-mile roadraces. Each earned The LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon's American Development Bonus and time bonuses for posting the qualifying times. The American Development Bonus offered an $80,000 prize purse to U.S. citizens in Chicago Marathon and will be split among the first 25 U.S. male citizen finishers and first 25 U.S. female citizen finishers.
The American Development Bonus will also pay an additional incentive for the U.S. athletes who ran under the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials qualifying times. A bonus of $2,500 will be paid to the 20 men and three women who met the respective "A" Standards of 2:20:00 and 2:39:00. A bonus of $1,500 will be paid to the 24 men and 22 women who met the respective "B" Standards of 2:22:00 and 2:47:00.
