Press Release

Ryan Hall Wins US Cross Country Championships

Irvine, CA (February 22, 2006) – California-native Ryan Hall (Woodside, CA) won his first US Championship on Sunday at New York’s historic Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, besting a tough field at the 2006 USATF 12-k Cross Country Championship. The 23-year old Hall made a decisive move at 7-kilometers on the frozen but fast 2-k loop course to get the win and insure his spot on Team USA, which will compete at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Japan. With temperatures near freezing and wind chills in the single digits, Hall blew apart the competition by almost 30 seconds, winning with a time of 34:48. He had already qualified for the World Championships by placing 3rd in the 4-k race held on Saturday in snowy conditions.

Hall, a student at Stanford University and 2005 NCAA 5,000 meter Champion, forgave his final year of athletic eligibility to sign a multi-year professional contract with ASICS in June, 2005. Soon thereafter, he placed third at the USATF Track and Field Championships, racing 13:16:03 for 5,000 meters and qualifying for last year’s World Championships in Helsinki, Finland.

His wife, Sara Hall (Woodside, CA), formerly Sara Bei, also punched her ticket to Japan and the World Cross Country Championships by placing 6th (12:51) in the women’s 4-k race Sunday morning. After the first 2-k lap, the Stanford graduate was comfortably in third but started to fade going into the third kilometer. Exiting the woods with just a half mile to go, she began to struggle and would barely hold onto the final qualifying spot. This is the first senior US team for the 2005 NCAA 5,000 meter runner-up and former high school national cross country champion.

New ASICS athlete Andrew Carlson (Apple Valley, MN) finished 12th in the men’s 12-k race, despite running with borrowed gear. Kelly Strong (Kirkland, Washington) also finished 13th in the women’s 8-k race on Saturday and 12th the 4-k race on Sunday.