Norwegian Festival Grete’s Great Gallop / Norway Run / Troll Stroll - Local GalleryOctober 3, 2009 [Event Gallery] [Video] [Norway Run Results] [Grete's Great Gallop Results] |
| The Grete’s Great Gallop half-marathon, part of the annual Norwegian Festival, was run in demandingly humid conditions, but 4,320 finishers completed the course—13.1 miles around the hilly Central Park loop. The event was part of the NYRR team-points series, and the West Side Runners (WSX) dominated the men’s open race, taking the top four spots. In the women’s open division, Running Divas New York (RDNY) notched their first win of 2009. |
 Ketema Nigusse (452), Abebe Tsegaye Halefom (400), and Teklu Tefera Deneke took the top three spots, in that order. Nigusse’s winning time was 1:06:52. |
 Felipe Garcia ran 1.08:51 to take fourth. |
 Kassahun Kabiso of the Westchester Track Club (WTC) sprinted hard to break 1:10. He finished fifth in 1:09:54. |
 Gian-Paul Caccia of the New York Athletic Club (sixth, 1:10:10) pulled away from Bobby Asher of the Greater New York Racing Team (GNY; ninth, 1:11:02). |
 Paul Thompson of the Warren Street Social & Athletic Club (WS) ran 1:11:34 to win his umpteenth masters title. |
 Rick Temerian of Urban Athletics (1:18:55) was the 50-54 winner. |
 Edward Silverman was eighth in his 65-69 division in a time of 2:12:23. |
 Gerald Burstein of Rockland Road Runners cruised to a second-place 70-to-74-division finish. |
 A big turnout of local team members made for good opportunities to work together. |
 Todd Houchins of Terrier Tri ran 1:37:57. |
 Calvin Conner of the New York Police Department turned in a fast 1:22:38 performance. |
 Zafar Shahbaz of the Van Cortlandt Track Club finished in 2:12:29. |
 Buzunesh Deba of WTC won by more than a minute in 1:14:52. |
 Katarina Janosikova led her Running Divas New York (RDNY) team to victory with her runner-up 1:16:14 performance. |
 Rebecca Yau of the Central Park Track Club took the last podium spot with her 1:18:27 finish. |
 Ana Johnson gave RDNY a big one-two punch. She finished fourth in 1:21:28. |
 Deborah Gaebler of GNY was the top female master (40+) finisher. She ran 1:29:21. |
 Jean Chodnicki-Stemm of WS took the 50-54 title with a 1:32:34. |
 Carol Hansen ran 1:46:28 to take second place in the 60-54 division. |
 The amazing Ginette Bedard ran 1:55:19 to finish first among 75-to-79 year olds—and among everyone over the age of 63. |
 Sunwong Hwang of the New York Flyers took ninth place in her 33-39 division with her 1:37:08 performance. |
 Lisa Swain of the North Jersey Masters was the second 50-54 finisher. She ran 1:35:39. |
 Rachel Kliegman of Front Runners New York ran 1:45:22… |
 …and the Biggest Smile Award went to Jun Matsuyoshi of the Mercury Masters, who ran 1:56:33. |
