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Emily Sisson won Saturday’s USATF 15K Road Race Championships. The 29-year-old, in her third national championships victory, won the Gate River Run in Jacksonville, FLA in the time of 48:09. She also beat all the men in the gender race. With a six-minute head start, the men couldn’t catch up. The closest was Clayton Young.
Sisson also took home $15,000, $10,000 for the win and a bonus of $5,000 for taking the gender battle.
“The game plan was just to run aggressively from the start,” she said during a post-race interview on USATF.tv.
She did just that, with her fast start, she ran alone for the entire race, tape-to-tape.
Lindsay Flanagan finished in second place in the time of 49:14, following was Emily Durgin who stopped the clock 49:29 taking third. It was a top-5 time, in the history of the event for Sisson.
Women
1 Emily Sisson 48:09
2 Lindsay Flanagan 49:14
3 Emily Durgin 49:29
4 Makena Morley 49:38
5 Erika Kemp 50:10
6 Grayson Murphy 50:14
7 Maggie Montoya 50:25
8 Laura Thweatt 50:30
9 Sarah Pagano 50:36
10 Diane Nukuri 50:42
11 Paige Stoner 50:48
12 Emma Bates 50:52
13 Sally Kipyego 51:06
14 Dakotah Lindwurm 51:31
15 Breanna Sieracki 51:39
16 Madison Offstein 51:47
17 Roberta Groner 51:56
18 Carrie Verdon 52:09
19 Katrina Coogan 52:25
20 Lexi Zeis 52:25
Sisson owns bests of 31:47 in the 10K, 30:49.57 in the 10,000m, 2:23:08 from the 2019 London Marathon, and 67:06 half-marathon from Valencia 2020.
The men’s race
In the men’s race, John Raneri was channeling his inner Sisson. He went out hard to put distance between himself and the field.
Twenty men ran in a chase pack, biding their time. In front was Chris Derrick, and Young as well as a handful of others.
Raneri’s lead built gradually over the first few miles, then dwindled slowly as he came back to the chasers. By the 10K mark, which he passed through in approximately 29:07, he was about to be swallowed up. Ten runners were on his heels and gaining.
He fought hard as the pack went by over the final few miles, finishing in 10th position and 23 second back of Young. Abbabiya Simbassa took second in the time of 43:54 while defending champion Shadrack Kipchirchir settled for third just one second back at 43:55.
Twenty-six-year-old Young has run the 10,000m as fast as 28:18.50. Saturday saw him set a personal best in the 15K, while he has run a 10-mile in the time of 48:23. His half-marathon best is 63:40.
Men
1 Clayton Young 43:52
2 Abbabiya Simbassa 43:54
3 Shadrack Kipchirchir 43:55
4 Nicolas Montanez 43:55
5 Kirubel Erassa 43:57
6 Colin Bennie 43:57
7 Frank Lara 44:02
8 Reed Fischer 44:02
9 Chris Derrick 44:04
10 John Raneri 44:15
11 Sam Chelanga 44:21
12 Alex Monroe 44:41
13 Rory Linkletter 44:41
14 Matt Mcclintock 44:41
15 Sydney Gidabuday 44:46
16 Marty Hehir 44:54
17 Jacob Thomson 44:58
18 Nathan Martin 45:05
19 Joel Reichow 45:09
20 Sid Vaughn 45:12
