July 19, 2005  Powell Leads American Women to World 24-Hour Run Bronze Medal The 3rd annual International Association of Ultrarunners' 24-Hour World Title run was held the weekend of July 16-17 in the small village of Worschach, in the foothills of the Austrian Alps.  Warm conditions for the most part kept performance levels modest, except for the remarkable 1-2 finish of Russian women Lyudmila Kalinina and Galina Eremina, who notched top 5 all-time world performances.  Defending world champion Sumie Inagaki of Japan, finishing 3rd, was the only factor preventing the Russian women from a global shutout performance, as Irina Koval of Russia finished fourth.  So overwhelming was the Russian distaff strength, their entire scoring women's team finished ahead of the first place scorer of half the men's national teams in the race. The American men were led for the second time in this event by 3-time national 24-hour run champ John Geesler of St. Johnsville, New York, who totaled almost 144 miles to finish 14th.  Rounding out the 6th-placing American men's team were Rudy Afanador of Medford, New York, and Dean Karnazes of San Francisco, California.  The men's race was won by Russian Anatoliy Kruglikov with 166.5 miles The shining star of the American team was Sandy Powell of Greenville, Virginia. Powell has been one of the best and most consistent American women over the last half-decade in the all-day, all-night running event.  She is always a top finisher in the annual national championship race and is now the only woman to score for the American team in all three World 24-Hour events.  For the past two years she has run as somewhat of a "domestique" in the shadow of American superstars Pam Reed and Stephanie Ehret.  This year, with both Reed and Ehret unable to make the trip to Austria, Powell rose to the occasion to fill their shoes with a huge 5% improvement in her personal best.  Her 133.1 mile total brought her home in 6th place and put the American women on the podium, sporting bronze team medals for the second straight year.  The other American women scorers were Carolyn Smith of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (11th with 126.8 miles) and Sue Olsen of Burnsville, MN (23rd with 115.5 miles). Next on tap for America's best long-range ultrarunners:  The American 24-Hour Run National Championship will be held Nov. 12 in San Diego.  This year's national title run will feature something brand new:  a head-to-head "Pacific Rim dual meet" competition between American and Japanese national teams. During the last 5 years the Japanese have come to global prominence in the 24-hour event, as evidenced by their gold and silver team medals in this year's World 24-Hour, following their silver/silver team performance of last year. Ryoichi Sekiya and Sumie Inagaki, 4th and 3rd this year after winning the men's and women's world individual titles last year, will lead the Japanese squads in this head-to-head match with the Americans.  Geesler and Powell are the first automatic selections to the American team to face the Japanese in this two nations match race.  The remainder of the American national team will be announced within the next month. RESULTS Men 1. Kruglikov, Anatoliy, RUS....268,06545 km  2. Eder, Ewald, AUT....263,81029 km  3. Lukas, Jens, GER....256,36865 km  4. Sekiya, Ryoichi, JPN....250,61880 km  5. Orsi, Sergio, ITA....249,87686 km  6. Beltramino, Osvaldo, ITA....246,40519 km  7. Seryy, Ivan, UKR....246,38379 km  8. Bychkov, Vladimir, RUS....246,16451 km  9. Otaki Masayuki, JPN....245,62854 km  10. Wagner Josef, AUT....238,44311 km ..... 14. Geesler, John, USA....231,80488 km  ..... 20. Afanador, Rudy, USA....228,60255 km  ..... 29. Karnazes, Dean, USA....219,29138 km  .... 34. Eppelman, Scott, USA....214,96031 km  .... 66. Pirrung, Roy, USA....179,78051 km  .... 78. Ripka Danny, USA....163,82366 km  Men's National Teams 1. JAPAN....734,49837 km  2. RUSSIA....731,22907 km  3. ITALY....725,89725 km  4. GERMANY....711,06134 km  5. AUSTRIA....709,42866 km  6. USA....679,69881 km  7. FRANCE....677,87441 km  8. CZECH REPUBLIC....660,58791 km  9. THE NETHERLANDS....627,40051 km  10. HUNGARY....611,06862 km  Women 1. Kalinina, Lyudmila, RUS....242,22875 km  2. Eremina, Galina, RUS....239,87434 km 3. Inagaki, Sumie, JPN....234,80304 km  4. Koval, Irina, RUS....227,46994 km  5. Kim, Jungok, KOR....223,10928 km  6. POWELL, SANDY, USA....214,42214 km  7. Noto, Kimie, JPN....214,29311 km  8. Tarasova, Nadezda, RUS....214,19460 km  9. Dimitriadu, Michaela, CZE....205,59711 km  10. Kamura, Masae, JPN....205,28965 km  11. SMITH, CAROLYN, USA....204,08753 km  ..... 23. Olsen, Sue, USA....186,00443 km  Women's National Teams 1. RUSSIA....709,57303 km  2. JAPAN....654,38580 km  3. USA....604,51410 km  4. FRANCE....577,84108 km  5. CZECH REPUBLIC....552,05823 km  6. THE NETHERLANDS....542,75825 km  7. GREAT BRITAIN....531,32102 km  8. AUSTRIA....530,28998 km  9. DENMARK....527,53383 km  10. KOREA....521,74824 km