North American 5K Championships Explained

The North American 5K Championships, also known as the North American 5 km Team Challenge,^[1] was an annual road running competition over 5 kilometres between three North American countries: Canada, Mexico and the United States.

The event was created in 2002 and held as part of the Arturo Barrios Invitational races each October in Chula Vista, California. It would be the permanent host of the competition, until the final edition in 2005. The competition had three elements: a men's 5K run, a women's 5K run, and a team competition. The team scores were decided by combining the finishing places of the top two men and top two women for each nation. The lowest overall score was the team winner. A total of three athletes could be entered per nation in each race.^{[2] [3] [4]}

All three participating nations won a team title over the competition's four-edition history, with Mexico winning the first, the United States the second, and Canada the final two titles. Mexico was the most successful in the men's race, having three wins, and Alejandro Suárez was the most successful male athlete with his back-to-back wins in 2003 and 2004. Canada was the most successful in the women's race, courtesy of Émilie Mondor's three straight wins from 2003 to 2005 and a runner-up place in 2002. The United States failed to win an individual title, despite being the host nation.^[2] Mondor set the women's championship record of 15:16 minutes in 2004 (also a Canadian national record), while Mexico's David Galván inaugural winning time of 13:47 minutes was never bettered.^[2]

Editions

Edition	Year	Host city	Host country	Date	No. of athletes
1st	2002		United States	27 October^[5]	18
2nd	2003		United States	26 October^[6]	18
3rd	2004		United States	24 October^[7]	18
4th	2005		United States	23 October^[8]	17

• American Lauren Fleshman was entered in the women's race, but was a non-starter.

Medallists

Men's individual

2002		13:47		13:54		14:00
2003		14:01		14:03		14:05
2004		13:56		13:59		14:03
2005		13:58		14:08		14:10

Women's individual

2002		15:30		15:32		15:36
2003		15:23		15:43		15:54
2004		15:16		16:00		16:03
2005		15:37		16:04		16:07

Team

2002^[9]		10		16		21
2003^[10]		13		15		17
2004^[11]		12		16		19
2005^[12]		8		16		20

References

Individual medalists

• North American 5 Kilometres Challenge. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-03-20.

Notes and References

1. http://www.usatf.org/events/2005/NorthAmerican5kmTeamChallenge/ 2005 North American 5 km Team Challenge
2. http://www.gbrathletics.com/ic/road.htm#N5 North American 5 Kilometres Challenge
3. http://www.usatf.org/events/2005/NorthAmerican5kmTeamChallenge/entry/ Selection Procedures
4. https://www.espn.com/espn/wire?section=trackandfield&id=2201864 Canadians will North American 5K Team Championship
5. http://www.usatf.org/events/2002/NorthAmerican5kmTeamChampionships/ 2002 North American 5 km Team Championships
6. http://www.usatf.org/events/2003/NorthAmerican5KTeamChampionship/ 2003 North American 5 km Team Championships
7. http://www.usatf.org/events/2004/NorthAmerican5KTeamChampionship/ 2004 North American 5 km Team Championships
8. http://www.usatf.org/events/2005/NorthAmerican5kmTeamChallenge/ 2005 North American 5 km Team Championships
9. http://www.usatf.org/events/2002/NorthAmerican5kmTeamChampionships/results.asp 2002 North American 5 km Team Championships Results
10. http://www.usatf.org/events/2003/NorthAmerican5KTeamChampionship/results.asp 2003 North American 5K Team Championships Results
11. http://www.usatf.org/events/2004/NorthAmerican5KTeamChampionship/results.asp 2004 North American 5K Team Championship Results
12. http://www.usatf.org/events/2005/NorthAmerican5kmTeamChallenge/results.asp 2005 North American 5 km Team Challenge Results