Torres Makes It Two New York Victories
2005 champion reclaims USA 8K title at Central Park Challenge as illness slows Webb
New York, March 15, 2008—Jorge Torres entered the final kilometer of the USA Men's 8K Championship with a one-meter lead over two very tall men. Andrew Carlson, who had won the USA 15K Championships the previous weekend, and Jason Hartmann, fifth in that race, ran in his wake with long, loping strides. Both men are well over six feet tall, and they looked poised to strike. The final half-mile of the Central Park course is on a significant downhill, and the 5’7” Torres, the winner of this event in 2005, looked vulnerable.
They reached the beginning of the curving downhill to the finish, and the decisive strike was made. By Jorge Torres.
Flying into the downhill with lightning-quick strides, he put a 10-meter gap on his younger rivals. Hartmann could not respond and would settle for third place. Carlson, who has reached a new level recently and had the confidence of a first-time national champion, fought back. They tore down the final stretch between rows of spectators with Carlson gaining ground. He got almost close enough to touch another national championship, but Torres held form to the line and won by seven-tenths of a second, the smallest margin in the race’s history. (They were given the same official time of 22:42.) “Those guys were closer than I wanted them,” he said. “It’s good to be on top again.”
Carlson, 25, of Bloomington, MN, wasn’t complaining about his second-place finish. “I don’t think Jorge knew I was coming—if he had, he probably would’ve put the hammer down,” he said. “I was trying to be as quiet as I could.” Hartmann, 26, of Eugene, OR, ran 22:48; James Carney, 29, of Boulder, CO, and Fasil Bizuneh, 27, of Flagstaff, AZ, completed the top five.
U.S. mile record-holder Alan Webb of Reston, VA, had been a strong favorite here until two nights before the race, when he began to suffer from apparent food poisoning and was kept awake most of the night by bouts of nausea. He led a close pack until the five-kilometer mark, reached in 14:10, but soon afterward felt a sudden drop in energy and had to back off. “It was a weird feeling,” he said afterward. “I thought I might spot them ten seconds and catch my breath, but then I fell apart very quickly.” He stopped briefly, then continued on to a 16th-place finish.
Torres, 27, of Boulder, CO, seventh in this event last year, has enjoyed a resurgence in his racing performances since joining Tempo Sports, a Boulder training group formed in 2007 and coached by former marathon world record-holder Steve Jones of Wales. The group includes 2004 Olympic marathoner Alan Culpepper, 2006 USA 25K champion Fernando Cabada, and Jorge’s twin brother, Edwardo. The twins were on a roll at the USA Cross Country Championships in San Diego on February 16; Jorge finished second to 2008 USA Olympic marathon team member Dathan Ritzenhein, who withdrew before today’s race with a foot injury. Edwardo took ninth, but then he, too, had to miss today’s race. “He lives with me,” said Jorge, “and I got sick last week. I think I gave him my cold.”
Forty-one national-class men ran the race in breezy, cold conditions (41º). No one came close to Alberto Salazar’s 1981 national record of 22:04, but sometimes the only important time is the difference between a national championship and second place. “I looked at the results,” said Jorge Torres. “Holy cow—seven-tenths of a second!”
Jorge Torres edged Andrew Carlson by under a second to win the USA Men's 8K Championship.
