barnburner in Yokohama Ekiden on Sunday – Olympic Silver Medalist Deena Kastor (USA) is coming off a fantastic 7th US Cross Country Championship 8km win and should face tough competition over the 2nd leg of 10km from former World Cross Country Champion in Edith Masai (KEN)

Strong teams from the USA, Russia and Kenya, should provide a major display of woman’s running prowess and fireworks at the Yokohama Ekiden this Sunday. These 3 nations may provide one of the strongest fields ever assembled for an ekiden relay.
Weather forecast is expected to be 4C/39F to 10C/49F and cloudy on this out and back relay course.

On the first leg (5km), Jen Rhines (USA) is favored with a PR of 14.55 and is doing a full track season, after taking a break from Marathoning and will go against 2005 World Marathon Champion, Catherine Ndereba (KEN-PR15.27) and Maria Konolova (RUS)-PR15.45. Expect Catherine and Maria to be alot closer than their personal best. Catherine was one of the best road racers for years and enjoys running in Japan.

Olympic Silver Medalist Deena Kastor (USA)-PR30.50 is coming off a fantastic 7th US Cross Country Championship 8km win and should face tough competition over the 2nd leg of 10km from former World Cross Country Champion in Edith Masai (KEN)-PR30.30 and 2006 European 10km champion, Inga Abitova of Russia-PR 30.31.
Last year, at the Vattenfall Berlin Half Marathon, Masai was able to easily pull away from Kastor who ranked #1 Womans Marathoner, this should one of those fantasic finishes going into the 2nd exchange zone.

Expect an interesting 3rd leg (6km) to test Carrie Tollefson (USA-PR 15.04) coming from sub freezing tempertures in her home of Minnestoa, to upstage Oleysa Syreva (RUS-PR15.25) and Irene Limika (KEN-PR15.18), as they will hand it over to the fastest 5km woman in the field, Lilia Shobukhova (RUS-PR14.47) to open up some road on Elva Dryer (PR15.03) and Caroline Chepkorir (KEN)16.27 during the the 4th stage(6km)

Heading into the 5th leg, Galina Bogomolova (RUS-PR30.26) should really open up a wide lead for the Russian woman, as she has the fastest 10k time coming into Yokohama. US Champion, Katie McGregor (USA-31.21) should be able to keep it close on the last exchange. The 6th leg (5.195Km) is where Amy Rudulph (USA-PR 14.56) should be able to make it a very close finish with Regina Rakhimkulova (RUS-PR15.23)
The race to the finish at the Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse, should be a dandy

Victah Sailor