Steamin' at the Steamboat

Ridouane Harroufi passed John Yuda of Tanzania very late in Saturday's Steamboat Classic (June 20) to win the world-class 4-mile race on Peoria's riverfront for the second year in a row. Harroufi won it in 17:44, two seconds ahead of Yuda, who led much of the way. On the women's side, there was another repeat winner as Kim Smith of New Zealand ran a 19:38 to beat runner-up Millicent Gathoni of Kenya by 1:18! Smith won it a year ago in 20 flat. Constantine Tomescu-Dita finished seventh in 21:52 and was inducted into the Steamboat Classic Hall of Fame. There were 2,824 finishers in the 4-mile and another 726 in the 15K.