www.minnesotahalfmarathon.com - Race Results
Botero breaks his own 10K record at the Minnesota John Rose Oval. Read the story taken from www.Powerslide.de
Jorge Botero and Briana Kramer win both St. Paul halfmarathon and the NROC 10K championships
POWERSLIDE's Jorge Botero and Briana Kramer continued to dominate the NROC series in the USA with 2 back to back wins this weekend. Saturday was the St. Paul 1/2 marathon in which both Botero and Kramer led their divisions to a great win. In the mens pro race, Powerslide's Jorge Botero and Adams Inline's David Sarmiento wasted no time in getting things spread out. About two miles into the race, both Colombians took off on a fast breakaway that caught the other skaters by surprise. "I let the skaters get some speed at the beginning, and then when they slowed down a little, I went," said Botero, who lives in Orlando, FL. and is also the sales and marketing director for POWERSLIDE USA.
Botero and Sarmiento were positioned in the back of the pack when they took off and then never looked back. As the two approached the final downhill before the finish line, they were both awaiting who would go on the sprint. "We hadn't talked about who was going to win the sprint," said Botero, "We decided we were going to have a clean sprint. "I started the sprint. When I hit the downhill, I picked up the pace. David is a long distance skater, and he was very strong in the race. But I knew I had a better sprint." Jorge Botero finished several yards ahead of Sarmiento with a winning time of 34 minutes and 53.6 seconds.
"The race wasn't easy for me," Botero said. "I pushed it hard."
In the Women's race, Briana Kramer was spectacular as she waited for the right time to lead out the sprint with about 15 skaters in the pack including skaters from Luigino, Bont, and more. The 17 year old USA Superstar finished a great race leading a few yards ahead of the chase pack making it 2 in a row following the Chicago Inline Marathon a couple of weeks prior.
Day two of the St. Paul weekend included a 10k track race where records fell that have been held since 1994! Again it was Jorge Botero and Briana Kramer representing POWERSLIDE well with 2 great record setting wins. The day started off wet and all were worried if the John Rose Oval would be ready to skate by race time. Although delayed the God's were good and the weather cleared and the track dried in time. The race started with the Pro Women as Brianna Kramer was out to break the track record set by Julie Brandt Glass set back in 1994, this record has held for the past 15 years and it was time for the POWERSLIDE skaters to SHINE! Brianna wasted no time and just took off from the pack knowing that she would have to do this on her own to break the record. "I wanted to go for the record, so I just went for it," said Briana who is also a member of the U.S. World Team set to compete in China in September. She just pulled away and eventually lapped the pack all the while pushing the pace. "The hardest part was mentally believing I could do it and to keep going and not get scared," said the 17 year old up and coming superstar. Briana finished with a record time of 16:53:54 destroying the 15 year old record by 82 seconds!
Next it was time for the Men's race and Jorge Botero was set to go and break his own record that still holds from 1996. Jorge was a mere 20 years old when he set that record and at 33 this is a new highlight to show that age is not as big a factor as the mind. Jorge came to the race with a game plan in mind. He wanted to keep every lap at around 36.7 seconds per lap to break this record. He stayed at the front of the lead pack pushing the pace all to which were below the target time, but being a seasoned veteran, he did not only want to break the record, but to also assure that he was going to win the race. He took off from the pack with about 13 laps to go and never looked back. He sped up, dropped the pack and soon lapped the entire field. "I was tired. But it was OK because I was still going uder 36.7 seconds." said Botero. Most of his final laps were between 34 and 35 seconds and smashed his own record by 45 seconds finishing at 15:09:09. He was followed again by Adam's Inline's David Sarmiento in second.
Powerslide with another impressive showing and presence in the USA.