Twin Cities Increases Anti-Doping Efforts

If you're an elite athlete running the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon on Sunday, don't be surprised if someone with a clipboard and a polo shirt that reads "U.S. Anti-Doping Agency" approaches you after your race.

The event will conduct drug-testing in each of its open prize-money races, not just the USA Championships. Twin Cities In Motion, the event organizer, announced this week that it is voluntarily expanding its anti-doping efforts to include testing of athletes in the open women's field.

As host of the USA Championships in the Men's Marathon and the Women's 10 Mile , drug-testing for those races is supported by USADA and the U.S. Olympic Committee. Twin Cities in Motion will cover the costs of testing for its open women's race, which is not a USA Championship in 2010.

The average cost of a drug test is between $500 and $750 per athlete.

“Twin Cities In Motion, like USA Track & Field, believes in doing everything we can to ensure a clean sport,” Virginia Brophy Achman , Executive Director of Twin Cities In Motion, said in a media release. “Despite the cost that these additional tests incur, we believe it is part of the responsibility in operating a successful, respected event. We also feel drug testing goes hand-in-hand with our support of post-collegiate athletes, who benefit from a level playing field.”

Battle of Master Champions ... The late additions of former USA Masters Marathon champion Dennis Simonaitis of Draper, Utah and defending USA Masters champ Tracy Lokken of Marquette, Michigan, to the TCM masters field means three USA Masters titlists will race one-another for the 2010 USA Masters crown on Sunday.

The trio – which includes two-time Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon champion Mbarak Hussein of Albuquerque, New Mexico– accounts for the last six USA Masters titles. Simonaitis won USA Masters titles in 2004 and 2008; Hussein won both open and USA Masters titles in 2005 and 2006; Lokken won in 2007 and 2009.

Carl Rundell of Birmingham , Michigan , the USA Masters Marathon runner-up the last two years, is also a contender in the race to crown the country’s top 40-and-over marathoner.

Six-Time Wheeler Champ Returns ... Saul Mendoza, the winner of six Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon wheelchair titles and the event’s defending champion, will seek a record seventh victory at Sunday’s 2010 Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon.

Mendoza, a Wimberley, Texas resident, won his first Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon title in 1996. He won the race again the next two years, and added additional victories in 2001, 2003, and last year for a record six titles. His 1:35:03 clocking in 1997 remains the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon course record for wheelers.

Mendoza can expect a challenge from 2009 wheelchair runner-up Scott Parson of San Jose , California. Last year, Mendoza edged Parson for the win by just five seconds, in 1:40:50. Chad Johnson, the fourth-place finisher in 2009 also returns to the competition.

In the women’s wheelchair competition, Christina Ripp of Lakewood , Colorado, and Sandra Rush of Fallbrook, California are the favorites.

Top Contenders ... Below are listings of the top contenders in this weekend's elite races at the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon as announced by race organizers:

USA Women’s 10 Mile Championship Field:

10001 Katie McGregor 33 Edina MN
10002 Jen Rhines 36 Mammoth Lakes CA
10003 Renee Metivier Baillie 28 Boulder CO
10005 Kathy Newberry 32 McLean VA
10006 Sally Meyerhoff 26 New York NY
10008 Stephanie Herbst-Lucke 44 Atlanta GA
10009 Kristen Fryburg-Zaitz 29 Bloomfield CO
10010 Michelle Frey 28 Minneapolis MN
10011 Meghan Armstrong 24 Richfield MN
10012 Lindsey Scherf 25 Hartsdale NY

USA Men’s Marathon Championship Field:

1 Fernando Cabada 28 Alamosa CO
2 Jeffrey Eggleston 26 Flagstaff AZ
4 Luke Watson 30 State College PA
6 Sergio Reyes 28 Palmdale CA
8 Michael Reneau 32 Corvallis OR
10 Tyler Sigl 24 Seymour WI
12 Drew Schackleton 24 Los Angeles CA
14 Kyle Schackleton 24 Los Angeles CA
16 Jeff Jonaitis 29 Tinley Park IL
18 Matt Hooley 28 Madison WI
20 Donovan Fellows 31 Woodbury MN
50 Mohamed Trafeh 25 Duarte CA

Women’s Open Marathon Field:

F2 Buzunesh Deba 23 Ethiopia
F4 Galina Alexandrova 34 Russia
F10 Alena Vinitskaya 37 Belarus
F12 Becki Ordway 27 USA ( Bellbrook , OH )
F14 Kelly Flathers 39 USA ( Huntington Beach , CA )
F30 Leah Kiprono 23 Ethiopia
F34 Carole Jefferson 25 USA ( Schwenksville , PA )
F60 Valentina Galimova 23 Russia
F111 Svetlana Ponomarenko 40 Russia

USA Men’s Masters Marathon Championship:

101 Tracy Lokken 45 Marquette MI
102 Mbarak Hussein 45 Albuquerque NM
103 Dennis Simonaitis 48 Draper UT
104 Carl Rundell 42 Birmingham MI
105 Robert Weiner 45 Evergreen CO

USA Women’s Masters Marathon Championship:

F101 Tamara Karrh 40 Marietta GA
F102 Susan Loken 47 Phoenix AZ
F103 Meghan Arbogast 49 Corvallis OR
F104 Lori Kingsley 44 Wysox PA
F105 Jill Boaz 43 Los Osos CA

Men’s Wheeler Marathon Field:

201 Saul Mendoza 43 Wimberley TX
202 Scott Parson 51 San Jose CA
203 Aaron Pike 24 Champaign IL
204 Chad Johnson 35 Charlestown IN
205 Grant Berthiaume 48 Tucson AZ

Women’s Wheeler Marathon Field:

F201 Christina Ripp 30 Lakewood CO
F202 Sandra Rush 49 Fallbrook CA