Ray Sharp won the men's race and Heidi Hauch captured the women's national title Sunday at the 68th USA 40 km Race Walk Championships in Ocean, N.J.

After retiring from the sport in 1991, Ray Sharp returned to competition in 2004. A two-time World Outdoor Championships team member and the 1982 national men's 40 km race walk champion, Sharp got off to a fast start on Sunday and built a ten-minute lead at the 30 km mark before hanging on to win in 3 hours 37 minutes 19 seconds. Paul Schwartzberg was the runner-up in 3:39:20.

In the women's race, Dorit Attias built a solid lead over Heidi Hauch at the 12 km mark, but Hauch gradually gained ground and eventually won the race easily by a margin of nearly nine minutes in 4:19:44. Hauch was the runner-up in 4:28:28.

The men's open and masters team titles went to the Shore AC.

Janet Higbie set a women's 60-64 world age-group record with her time of 6:45:01.U.S. Masters records were set (based on current accepted records) by: Dorit Attias, female age 40-44 at 25 km in 2:37:15; Leon Jasionowski, male age 60-64 40 km in 3:56:08 and Bob Mimm, male 80-84 40 km in 6:02:12.

For more information on the 2006 USA National 40 km Race Walk Championships, including the complete results, visit www.usatf.org.