Team Strands’ Elva Dryer selected to IAAF World Half Marathon Team
Team Strands athlete Elva Dryer has been selected to the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships team. The race in Birmingham, U.K. will be the fifteenth time that Elva has represented the United States in international competition.
The two-time Olympian (2000, 2004) has participated in 7 World Cross Country Championships, 3 World Outdoor Track and Field Championships, as well as the World University Games and Goodwill Games. In four of her seven World Cross appearances, she helped lead Team USA onto the podium, with team bronze medal finishes in 1998 (4km), 2000 (8km), and 2003 (8km), and team silver in Portugal in 2002 (8km).
Dryer, who has a personal best of 1:11:42 from her 2007 USA Half Marathon Championships title, was selected based on her 7th place finish at the USA 20 km Championships earlier this month.
Dryer will team up wth Amy Yoder-Begley (Portland, Oreg.), Desiree Davila (Rochester Hills, Mich.), Serena Burla (Baldwin, Mo.), and Amy Hastings of Mammoth Lakes, California.
“I am honored to be representing the US in the World Half Marathon Championships in Birmingham”, Dryer said. “My goal is to help bring home a top team finish.”
The invitation came just days after Elva elected to forgo racing in the US Marathon Championships in what she says will be an effort to “focus once again on reconnecting with the shorter distances”.
The race will begin at 9:00 a.m. (Birmingham) on October 11, with a web cast from Universal Sports. For more information, visit the official IAAF race website.
