Instead of the usual Kenyan domination of the U.S. road racing circuit, it was a European sweep at the 28th annual SunTrust Richmond Marathon and nTelos 8K Saturday morning in Richmond. There was a record turnout in all three events, 4,763 in the marathon, 4,698 in the 8K, and 929 in the Richmond Times Dispatch One Mile Kids Run, a total of 10,390 participants. The previous mark was 8,879 in the 2004 events organized by the Richmond SportsBackers. Perfect weather greeted the runners (sunny, cool, and light winds).

A record was also set in the men's marathon as Andrei Gordeev, 32, of Belarus, (photo left)ran 2:14:32 to smash the previous mark of 2:15:36 by three-time champion Elly Rono of Kenya, who won in 2002 (2:16:02), 2003 (2:15:36) and 2004 (2:17:55). Gordeev won by 2:17 over Russian Sergey Fedetov, second in 2:16:49, just eight seconds ahead of third-place Fred Getange of Kenya (2:16:57). There was a large gap back to fourth, James Mutuse of Kenya (2:24:09) and fifth, Aaron Saft of Christiansburg (2:27:36).

The top five men and women won $2,500-1,500-750-500-250 in the marathon, with $250-150-100 going to the top three Masters (40- and-over) finishers. For setting a marathon course record, Gordeev also won a one-year lease of a new Volkswagen Beetle. What made Gordeev's race even more impressive is that he had won the Detroit Free Press Marathon just three weeks earlier in 2:14:59.

In the women's marathon, (photo left) Russians Marina Bychkova, 29, and Elvira Kolpakova, 33, ran together for 20 miles before Bychkova pulled away to win in 2:42:40 over Koplakova's 2:43:33. After running a breakthrough 1:21:26 at September's Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon, Renee High, 24, of Virginia Beach had an equivalent marathon performance with her third-place 2:52:57. Fourth and fifth were Aimee Phillippi-Taylor, 28, of Glen Rock, PA (2:55:34) and Milligan Grinstead, 25, now of Charlottesville (2:57:07).

Another breakthrough came from Jennifer Quarles, 33, of Williamsburg, who improved her marathon PR from 3:16:29 (Moab Marathon in UT in May) to 2:59:11, but not too surprising consider she ran PRs at 5K (18:37) and half marathon (1:26:01) this fall, and had upped her mileage to as much as 100 miles per week. Defending champion Tammy Slusser, 40, of Monroeville, PA (2:56:40 in 2004) has not felt good since running the Steamtown Marathon a month ago, and she was 10th overall in 3:02:52.

It was hard to top last year's exciting three-way finish in the men's 8K (three runners timed in 23:24), but this year's sprint was even better, a near photo finish among Vyacheslav Shabunin (23:03) over Kenyans Samuel Ndereba (23:04), Joseph Koskei (23:04) and Paul Ngeny (23:07), with Australian Andrew Letherby fifth in 23:18 (after running 2:11 at the Berlin Marathon). The top five men and women in the 8K received $1,000-500-250-150- 100, with $250-150-100 going to the Masters top three.

The women's 8K was a relative runaway, as Tetyana Hladyr, 30, of Ukraine (photo Below) won in 26:00, just six days after placing 11th in the New York City Marathon in 2:29:34. Kenyans went 2-3- 4 with Linet Chepkurui, age 17 (26:25), Jackline Okemwa (26:27) and Grace Misati (27:02), with Richmond's Cheryl (Bauer) Anderson, a former William and Mary runner fifth in 27:04, the same time as sixth-place Heather Lee.

Full Race Results