LOS ANGELES - In record-high temperatures, both Jared Ward and Blake Russell became U.S. marathon champions Sunday in Santa Monica, Calif. with third-place finishes overall in the men’s and women’s field at the USATF Marathon Championships. 

 

Acting as the national championship, the L.A. Marathon started from Dodger Stadium and finished at the Santa Monica Pier, where overall race winners and fellow Kenyans Daniel Limo and Ogla Kimaiyo broke the tape in 2:10:35 and 2:34:09, respectively. Lani Rutto followed Limo close behind to take second overall in 2:12:42, and Natalya Puchkova trailed on Kimaiyo in 2:34:32. 

 

Ward secured the U.S. title with a late surge for third-place overall to cross the finish line in 2:12:55 for the U.S. win, 20 seconds over Edwin Koech (2:13:35). The Provo, Utah native beat his personal best of 2:14:00 from the Twin Cities Marathon last fall by over a minute to secure his first national title.

 

“I just feel so blessed to have so many good people around me….I just have so many things going for me, it’s been a fun ride,” Ward said.
 

In another improvement on a personal best, Northern Arizona Elite’s Matt Llano powered through for a sixth-place finish overall and a runner-up finish in the U.S. field with a time of 2:16:12. After a disappointing debut in Chicago last October, Llano earned redemption on the streets of Los Angeles.

“It’s a good feeling to come back in my second marathon to just execute it better than I did in my first one,” Llano said. 

 

Brooks Hanson’s distance veteran Mike Morgan finished close behind Llano in 2:16:55 to round out the top three American finishers in the men’s field. Two-time Olympian and heavy favorite Ryan Hall faded around the halfway point of the race and was unable to finish. 

 

On the women’s side Russell, 39, shined on the course with a third-place finish overall in a U.S. title-winning time of 2:34:56, seven seconds ahead of fourth-place finisher Mao Kuroda of Japan. The mother of two competed at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing where she finished 27th in 2:33:13. She struggled in the 26.2-mile distance over the past few years, but was dominant today in Los Angeles.

 

“I just struggled so this one definitely puts me mentally back on the map, I know now that I can make it from point ‘A’ to point ‘B,” Russell said. 

School teacher and mother Heather Lieberg followed Russell in a late surge down the hills towards the finish for fifth-place overall in a time of 2:35:31. It was the Helena, Montana native’s second runner-up finish in the last few months after taking second at the Twin Cities Marathon in October. Boulder, Colorado native Brianne Nelson closed hard as well for a sixth-place finish and a time of 2:36:06. She most recently posted a runner-up performance (1:10:16) at the USATF Half Marathon Championships in Houston in January. 

In a hard-fought battle with the hot weather, Sara Hall made her debut in the 26.2-mile distance with a finishing time of 2:48:02.