Elite females to highlight Bridge Run field

Saturday's Cooper River Bridge Run will feature a stronger field of female elite runners than usual. Eleven of the top 13 seeds are from either Kenya or Ethiopia and have broken 34 minutes for a 10K.

It's fitting, in a way, because this is the first year the coordinator of the elite athletes is a woman.

Janis Newton, program coordinator at the Medical University of South Carolina's Harper Student Wellness Center, was tapped to do the job after Howie Schomer and the Bridge Run parted ways last year. Schomer had been the coordinator since the early 1990s and helped build the program to its current level.

"This was a big undertaking," says Newton, who was basically tossed in the proverbial deep end but who got help from Schomer.

Newton said she set out to draw a stronger female field but that part of it was luck.

Among the Kenyan women are No. 1 seed Margaret Chirchir of Kenya, who has a 10K personal record of 32 minutes, 11 seconds and No. 2 seed Janet Cherobon with personal records of 32:21 for the 10K and 15:50 for the 5K.

The usually strong field of men — the top 14 this year have broken 30 minutes — includes returning Bridge Run champion Richard Kiplagat of Kenya, who ran last year's race in 28:35. Two other past Bridge Run champions from Kenya, John

Itati (2002) and Linus Maiyo (2005), are also returning as the 10th and 11th seeds for men.

The men's elite field for masters runners division (age 40 and up) features New Zealand's Sean Wade, who won the division last year with a 31:12, Russia's Sergei Kaledin, who won the division at the Crescent City Classic 10K in New Orleans in March with 32:06 and Canada's Bruce Raymer who just finished Azalea Trails 10K in 32:38.

The women's masters division is lead by Firaya Sultanova-Zhdanova of Russia, Donna Anderson of Pawley's Island and Tatyana Pozdnyakova of Ukraine. Pozdnyakova, 52, "triple-dipped" into Bridge Run cash prizes in 2006, when her 35:16 scored a ninth place overall and first places in both the masters and grandmasters (50-up) divisions.