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Defending champions win again in Subaru Chase
(Buffalo News, The (NY) (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jul. 19--You may have heard this one before.
Demesse Tefera of Ethiopia and Tara Quinn-Smith of Toronto successfully defended their championships in the Subaru Buffalo 4 Mile Chase on Friday night. It was the second win in two tries for Tefera, while Quinn- Smith captured the title for the third straight year. Each runner earned $1,000 on a night when temperatures were in the low 80s. It wasn't an evening to challenge the course records (17:53 for men, 20:18 for women) and earn an extra $1,000.
Tefera needed a little more than a mile to take charge of the race this time. He was slightly ahead after a mile with an impressive time of 4:30 that seemed to tire out most of his competition. Shortly after that he put on a burst that separated him from a pack of about 10 runners.
"He made it look really easy," said Orchard Park's Chris Muldoon, who finished fourth overall in 19:24 to rank as the best local runner. "He went out and I was straining on the first mile. He kind of sat back for a couple hundred [meters] to look around and see who was around. Then all of a sudden he skipped out to the front and never looked back."
For the last 2z miles, Tefera had only a police motorcycle for company.
"Today I ran by myself," said Tefera, whose English is limited. "No fight . . . so bad time."
Tefera's "bad time" was 18:37, 14 seconds behind last year's figure. It was still good for a 26-second victory over Andrew Smith of Toronto.
Quinn-Smith took a little longer to take charge of the race. She needed about half the course to work her way to the front, and held on from there.
"I tried to stay a little bit more conservative at the start of the race in the first couple of miles," Quinn-Smith said. "Everybody traditionally goes out pretty hard, and the men get after it. I was a little bit behind the top women at first, and I had to work my way up. I passed the lead pack at about two miles. I had a couple of women to work with, and I tried to pull away in the last mile and a half or so."
Quinn-Smith finished in 21:12, an impressive 47 seconds faster than last year's winning time. Maureen McCandless of Syracuse was second in 21:21.
Quinn-Smith said she didn't get around to registering for the race until Friday, but that she had always intended to run it. Two straight previous wins is a good-sized incentive to make the drive down from Toronto. After all, her prize money will more than cover the gas and bridge toll.
"The familiarity of it and knowing where the tough parts of the course are -- where the hills are -- helps," she said. "I was prepared to do whatever I needed to do to win."
It was a hot night for most of the field, with a lack of direct sunlight and a bit of a breeze helping slightly. However, the conditions weren't a problem for the winners; Tefera said the heat didn't bother him at all.
"It's been like this the past couple of years," Quinn-Smith said. "If anything, the cloud cover helped a little bit."
Kevin Poole of Gettysburg, Pa., was the top U. S. male runner at 19:18, which was good for a third-place overall finish.
Henry Sypniewski of Cheektowaga took part in his first race as a 90-year-old. He finished in an impressive time of 45:43. He was one of the 28th annual event's 770 finishers, who like the idea of testing themselves against some top international runners.
"Oh my gosh, it feels like college again," said Muldoon, who won the Corporate Challenge event in June. "They are great guys. It's tough not to have that [training] schedule, what with working and all. But it's fun to be able to run semi-competitively. I'm not quite at the level I was back then, but I'm still pretty proud of myself."
bbailey@buffnews.com
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