Donaldson Shines at World Championship 24 Hour in Korea

Jamie Donaldson of Littleton, Colo., was the U.S. star at this weekend's World 24 Hour Run Championship, held in Seoul, Korea. Donaldson, who earlier this year had set a new women's course record at the Badwater 135 mile race (from Death Valley to Mount Whitney in California), finished 5th among women with 136.75 miles. Donaldson led the U.S. women (Deb Horn, Shaker Heights, Ohio, 125.66 miles; Carilyn Johnson, El Paso, Texas, 122.22 miles) to a 4th place national team finish, falling just a few miles short of the bronze medal. The top three national teams were France, Japan and Germany. The women's race was won by France's Anne-Marie Vernet who covered 148.35 miles.

In the men's race, Phil McCarthy of New York City led the U.S. men for the second straight year, finishing 17th with 145.29 miles. The U.S. men finished 7th, with Alex Swenson, Vashon, Wash. (134.27 miles) and the 60-year old Roy Pirrung, Sheboygan, Wis. (133.12 miles) backing up McCarthy. The race was won by Japan's Ryoichi Sekiya with 169.28 miles. Sekiya led Japan to the team victory, followed by France and Russia.

This year's U.S. national team was sponsored by CW-X Conditioning Wear and by Gehring Textiles.

The top American male and female finishers in this World title event (pending achieving the minimum distances of 135.0 miles for men and 120.0 miles for women) will be automatically selected for the U.S. team to the 2009 World Championship 24 Hour, which will be held in Bergamo, Italy on May 2-3, 2009.

Also, the top U.S. male and female finishers in the 2008 U.S. National 24 Hour Run Championship (pending the same standards of 135.0 miles for men and 120.0 miles for women), to be held at The Ultracentric Experience 24 Hour in McKinney, Texas on Nov. 15-16 of this year, will join the top American World 24 Hour finishers as automatic selections to the 2009 team.

The remainder of the 2009 U.S. team qualifying procedure will be announced shortly and will be posted at: www.AmericanUltra.org