Cuba hosts Team USA at first-ever America's Combined Events Cup

INDIANAPOLIS - A five-person Team USA squad will compete May 29-30 at the inaugural America's Combined Events Cup at the National Stadium in Havana, Cuba. The event will be held under the supervision of the North America, Central America and Caribbean Track and Field Association (NACAC) and the Cuban Track and Field Federation (FCA).

The America's Combined Events Cup brings together athletes from Member Federations in Consudatle (South America) and NACAC (North America, Central America and Caribbean), in a competition designed to promote combined events in the region.

"Competing here in Cuba enables us to show support for our fellow NACAC federations while providing our athletes with an outstanding competitive opportunity," said USATF CEO Doug Logan, who spent much of his early childhood in Cuba and whose first language was Spanish. "We will continue to look for ways to strengthen the bonds of international friendship through the vehicle of athletics."

2004 Olympian Paul Terek will headline the Team USA men's squad that will compete in Havana. A two-time Big Ten decathlon champion and NCAA Championships runner-up in 2002 while at Michigan State, Terek is a three-time participant at the World Outdoor Track & Field Championships, with his most notable performance occurring when he finished 10th at the 2007 World Champs in Osaka, Japan. Terek, who owns a personal best score of 8,312 points from 2004, was ranked in the U.S. top ten by Track & Field News every year between 2002 and 2007.

The 2002 NCAA Division III decathlon champion while attending Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., Chris Boyles finished fourth at both the 2006 USA Outdoor Championships, and at the 2005 NACAC Combined Events Challenge in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Boyles, who has been ranked in the U.S. top ten on three occasions, posted his personal best score of 7,855 points in 2006.

Former Eastern Michigan University standout Lela Nelson will lead the Team USA women's heptathlon squad in Havana following a strong 2008 campaign where she posted her career best of 6,029 points in winning the heptathlon at the 2008 Thorpe Cup Combined Events Challenge vs. Germany. The NCAA heptathlon champion in 2005, Nelson finished third at the NACAC Championships in 2007 and has been ranked in the U.S. top ten the last four years. Also known for her prowess in the long jump, Nelson finished third in that event at the 2005 NCAA Outdoor Championships.

The seventh-place finisher at the 2008 Olympic Trials and a former standout at the University of Cincinnati, Ashley Wilhelm finished sixth last year at the Thorpe Cup Combined Events Challenge vs. Germany. Wilhelm, who last year set a new personal best of 5,747 points, achieved the first-ever T&FN ranking of her career when she ended the 2008 campaign ranked #9 in the U.S.

A relative newcomer on the national scene in combined events competition, Team USA Beijing Olympic high jumper Sharon Day won the Big West Conference heptathlon title last year with a personal best score of 5,642 points. Day, who finished second at the 2009 USA Indoor Combined Events Championships in the pentathlon (4,320 points), finished third in the high jump at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials, and ended the year ranked #3 in the nation in that event for the second consecutive year.

For more information on the inaugural America's Combined Events Cup in Havana, Cuba, visit:http://www.inder.cu/copa2009/Home/DefaultPage.aspx?lang=EN