Muindi, Morgunova to Defend Titles at 33rd Honolulu Marathon

HONOLULU - (December 7, 2005) - The 33rd Honolulu Marathon - set for Sunday, December 11 - will have both defending champions back, Jimmy Muindi of Kenya and Lyubov Morgunova of Russia.

Muindi, 32, the only four-time race champion, will face competition from countryman Joseph Riri and American Mbarak Hussein. Last April, Muindi ran a personal record of 2 hours, 7 minutes, 50 seconds to win the Fortis Rotterdam Marathon.

Riri set his PR of 2:06:49 at the 2004 real,-Berlin Marathon (runner-up), while Hussein, 40, who owns a 2:08:10 PR from Seoul in 2004, gave up his Kenyan citizenship last year. In 2005, the Albuquerque, N.M. resident has already set U.S. masters record in the half-marathon (1:03:23) and the 25K (1:17:12), as well as winning the U.S. marathon title at Twin Cities in October.

For the women at Honolulu, Morgunova, 34, who broke her own course record last year with a 2:27:33 victory, goes for her fourth win here. Her top competition should be 2003 champion Eri Hayakawa of Japan. Hayakawa was second last year in a PR 2:28:11. She finished 5th at the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon in 2:28:50 this past October.

Entries for the race have already surpassed the 2004 total of 25,671 and are now over 26,000. The Honolulu Marathon is the third largest U.S. marathon behind the ING New York City and LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathons and the sixth largest in the world. Visit the race website at: HonoluluMarathon.org

source RunningUSA