LA Announces Purse for Top U.S. and Californian Athletes

Race to also offer $1000 bonuses to 2008 Olympic Trials Qualifiers

LOS ANGELES - (March 2, 2006) - For the first time in its 21-year history, the City of Los Angeles Marathon presented by Honda will be offering cash prizes to the top three American and Californian men and women to cross the finish line on Sunday, March 19. Included as part of the race's $417,600 guaranteed prize purse, U.S. and California runners will also be competing for $18,000 and $5000, respectively, with the top three places per gender sharing the prize money. U.S. and California runners will be eligible to earn prize money in multiple categories. In addition, Marathon organizers announced a bonus of $1000 for any American athletes who run under the 2008 Olympic Trials "A" qualifying times of 2:20:00 for men and 2:39:00 for women.

"By offering these cash incentives, we hope to bring more of America's top runners to Los Angeles and to encourage them to run faster here on the way to competing on a world level," said Los Angeles Marathon President Dr. William A. Burke.

Currently the top American men are Chris Banks and Steve Moreno. Banks, who lives in Alexandria, Virginia, placed 7th and set his marathon personal best of 2:17:06 at the 2004 Twin Cities Marathon. He was the 1st American at the 2003 Pan Am Games Marathon in Santo Domingo and a three-time qualifier for the NCAA Cross Country Championships while at Princeton University. Steve Moreno, a high school teacher from Oakland, was 15th at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials in 2:17:48, where he set his personal best.

For the women, Magdalena Lewy Boulet and Heather Hanscom lead the field. Magdalena, the wife of Richie Boulet who will be competing in the Men's Professional Field, is a former UC-Berkeley track All-American and a volunteer coach for the Golden Bears Cross Country program. She was 5th at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials and has a marathon PR of 2:30:50 from that race. Hanscom, from Alexandria, Virginia, also set her personal best of 2:31:53 at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in St. Louis.

In total, the Los Angeles Marathon will be offering $417,600 in prize money, including a $100,000 bonus to the winner of the Banco Popular Challenge, an innovation created by the event organizers in 2004. The Banco Popular Challenge is an unprecedented male-versus-female race in which the women are given a 'head start' based on statistics compiled from recent performances by the competing professional runners. The winners in the male and female division will also win a $35,000 first place prize plus a Honda Accord EX-V6 valued at $27,300, giving the winner of the Banco Popular Challenge the largest guaranteed first place payout in the United States.

source RunningUSA