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Bastos: A Disney Six-Peat

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By BILL WARD

wward@tampatrib.com

Published: January 12, 2009

Brazil's Adriano Bastos may not own the fastest time in the 16-year history of the Disney Marathon but he has certainly dominated the event like no one else. The 30-year-old won the 26.2-mile trek through Disney theme parks for the sixth time Sunday, this time crossing the finish line in 2 hours, 20 minutes, 38 seconds.

Bastos led a record field of 22,000 entrants and won by nearly seven minutes against second-place finisher Aaron Church of South Riding, Va.

Taking the women's crown was 23-year-old Lisa Mizutani of Japan in 2:46:27. St. Petersburg's Melanie Peters, the race's defending champion and winner of last year's Gasparilla Marathon in Tampa, took second place (2:53:49) followed closely by former University of South Florida standout Christa Benton (2:54:35), also from St. Petersburg.

The area's top male finishers were Clearwater's Kevin Lyons, who was eighth overall and second in the 18-24 age division at 2:35:32, and Tampa's Lee Stephens, who ran 2:37:38 to earn 11th overall and second in his 30-34 age group. In the race's masters division, Tampa's Terri Rejimbal won the women's title in 3:04.46. Two other local runners were age-group winners: Tampa's Dana Parrot (3:01:10) took the 35-39 division while St. Petersburg's Denise Skinner (3:20:50) won the 50-54 group.

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