AMERICAN 20-K RECORD & NATIONAL TITLE FOR MANTZ AT FAXON LAW NEW HAVEN ROAD RACE
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2025 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved – Used with permission.
NEW HAVEN (01-Sep) — On a cool and cloudy morning here, reigning USA Olympic Trials Marathon champion Conner Mantz showed that his training for October’s Bank of America Chicago Marathon is right on track, breaking his own national 20-K record at the Faxon Law New Haven Road Race by seven seconds. Mantz, 28, went through 10-K in 27:50, then came back in the hilly second half of the race in 28:26 to run 56:16. His mark set a new USATF 20-K Championships record and also broke Khalid Khannouchi’s 27 year-old event record of 57:37.
“I think this was the exact type of race I needed in preparation for Chicago,” Mantz told a small group of reporters after the race. “A win always is helpful, but the biggest thing was a really hard effort. You can push in workouts, and push a lot. But today, this was really, really tough.”
Mantz, who won here in 2022 and finished second in 2023, also had to fight a pitched battle for the win today against Isai Rodriguez and Hillary Bor. The trio were part of a six-man lead pack which zipped through the first mile in 4:23, and the second in 4:33. They were joined by Shadrack Kipchirchir, Casey Clinger and Zouhair Talbi. Clinger and Kipchirchir fell back in the fourth mile, and Talbi had to let go in the fifth mile when the first three split 22:25.
“They were moving so quick,” Mantz said of Rodriguez and Bor. “At halfway I think we were at 27:50, or something like that. It was quick. At that point I was like… if I run about 4:45 pace the rest of the way I’ll get the course record. But these guys didn’t slow down. They kept pushing.”
Bor, the race’s defending champion, tried to use his energy wisely. He was content to let Rodriguez and Mantz switch-off at the front.
“If there is someone there to push the pace, then I’ll just sit at the back,” Bor told Race Results Weekly. “When Rodriguez took the pace, I said ‘this is perfect.'”
Rodriguez, the 2023 Pan Am Games 10,000m champion, did most of the leading. In what was his first race of the year, he wanted to keep the pace high and give himself a chance at the podium. He led through 10 miles in 45:31 –a time which was only 16 seconds slower than the American record– and stayed with Mantz and Bor until the final push to the finish line along Temple Street in Downtown New…
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