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Races — Liza Hunter-Galvan wins Disney’s Princess Half Marathon

JoeEnglish - 4:26 am

ORLANDO — Liza Hunter-Galvan, an Olympian who finished 35th in the marathon at the Beijing Olympics for team New Zealand, won the inaugural Disney’s Princess Half Marathon today. The new race was an all women’s running event.

Liza Hunter-Galvan

Liza Hunter-Galvan

Hunter-Galvan, 39, won the race in 1:18:18, defeating runner-up Nadezhda Tuptova of Russia by a margin of 1:06.

Hunter-Galvan and Tuptova were joined by Firaya Sultanova of Russia in the lead pack for the first seven miles of the 13.1-mile race. After Sultanova fell back, Hunter-Galvan and Tuptova battled it out for the lead at the 10-mile mark.

“It took me a half-mile to drop her, but I finally broke her,” Hunter-Galvan told the Orlando Sentinel. “It was tough to break her.”

Kelly Arribas of Winter Park was the top local finisher in 1:26:46. She finished eighth overall out of nearly 7,500 runners.

Heather Schulz of Orlando was 10th overall in 1:27:46. Schulz, 34, is a former Colonial High student who went to Valencia Community College for two years, then walked-on and earned a track scholarship at UCF.

“If it weren’t for running, I would probably need therapy,” Schulz said. “It’s almost like meditation.”

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3 responses so far, want to say something?

  1. 1. Races — Liza Hunter-Galvan wins Disney’s Princess Half Marathon « Running Advice and News March 9th, 2009 at 4:33 am

    [...] To continue reading this story, click here. [...]

  2. 2. Grant August 28th, 2009 at 6:38 am

    Reports out of NZ today are of a positive B sample result from Hunter-Galvan for EPO, and an immediate 2 year ban. The positive samples were taken in March 2009.

  3. 3. coachjoeenglish August 28th, 2009 at 2:04 pm

    Thanks for the note Grant.

    Here's the story from the AP:

    (8-28-09)
    <p style=\”margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; \”>WELLINGTON, New Zealand — U.S.-based New Zealand Olympic marathoner Liza Hunter-Galvin was banned from competition for two years Friday after admitting using the banned performance-enhancing substance EPO.
    <p style=\”margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; \”>Hunter-Galvin, 40, a mother of four, admitted using EPO on three occasions — in February, March and in May, only three days before she returned a positive doping test.
    <p style=\”margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; \”>Hunter-Galvin, a teacher who lives in San Antonio, Texas, represented New Zealand at the 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing Olympics. On both occasions she had been rejected for selection but appealed on the basis of her personal best marathon time of 2 hours, 30 minutes, 39 seconds.
    <p style=\”margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; \”>She finished 51st in the Athens marathon and 35th in Beijing last August.
    <p style=\”margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; \”>\”Everybody is incredibly annoyed,\” Athletics New Zealand chief executive Scott Newman said. \”It's very sad that one of our elite would choose to do this but we're not naive.
    <p style=\”margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; \”>\”We don't imagine that our athletes aren't exposed to this at most major international competitions and I guess some will be tempted for some reason. In this case Liza was tempted and we're incredibly disappointed about that.\”
    <p style=\”margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; \”>There was no immediate comment from Hunter-Galvin.

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