IAAF World
Championships
Day 10

Edmonton, Canada (08/12/01) - The last day of competion at the 2001 World Championships kicked off at 8:00 AM with the women's Marathon. The race was led early by Romania's Constantina Dita, who held the lead through the 30K mark and finished 10th overall in 2:30:38. The race was won by Dita's teammate and 2000 Olympic Silver Medalist Lidia Simon. Simon did not take the lead until after the 40K mark. Lidia finished with a time of 2:26:01 only 5 seconds ahead of Japan's Reiko Tosa. The first American was Boston native Jill Gaitenby, who finished 32nd overall in her first World Championships. Jill ran the first 25K with her training partner, Canadian Sandy Jacobson who finished 34th. Jill and Sandy have both been training with the Fila Racing Team in southern California for the last 6 month. Jill said the "Crowd support was awesome."

The Women's Marathon Cup went to Japan who's top 3 finishers were 2nd, 4th and 9th in 2:26:06, 2:26:33 and 2:29:57 respectively.

The Men's 1500 meter provided an exciting race with World Record holder and defending World Champion Hichman El Guerrouj taking the Gold in a fast time of 3:30.68. Hicham defeated Kenya's 2000 Olympic Bronze medalist Bernard Lagat who finished with the silver in 3:31.10. American and the former Eastern Michigan standout Paul McMullen finished 10th in the 1500 final with a time of 3:39.35.

The American men's 4x100 team (Grimes, Williams, Mitchell, Montgomery) captured the Gold with a seasonal best time of 37.86. South Africa took the silver and Trinidad the bronze.

The men's 4x400 Gold was won by the American team of Byrd, Pettigrew, Brew, and Taylor in a world leading time of 2:57.54. The silver went to the Bahamas and the bronze to Jamaica.

The women's 800 meter was won by Maria de Lourdes Mutola in a time of 1:57.17. The Gold for the women's high jump went to South Africia's Hestrie Cloete.

"Our final, total attendance for the past 10 days was 400,886 and we're extremely pleased with the daily average attendance of 40,089 at the Stadium. We went from just slightly under 29,000 on Saturday, Aug. 4 to a high of 54,920 on Day 10, the Closing Ceremony," said Chairman of the Board, Jack Agrios.

"I'm also very happy to announce that not only did we surpass our budget target of $12.5 million in ticket revenue, we believe we have set the stage for future Championships to be held on this continent," Agrios noted.

-- Check out the complete results from today --