New York, October 2, 2008� A trio of former champions�Paul Tergat of Kenya, Hendrick Ramaala of South Africa, and Marilson Gomes dos Santos of Brazil�along with two-time Olympic silver medal winner Catherine Ndereba of Kenya, were announced today by New York Road Runners president and CEO and race director Mary Wittenberg as the field for the new York City Marathon 2008 on Sunday, November 2, was finalized.
Tergat captured the 2005 crown in the closest finish in race history when he out sprinted Ramaala, the 2004 winner, to win by three tenths of a second. Gomes, 31, made race history by surprising a stellar field, including Tergat and Ramaala, in 2006 to become the first South American winner and a hero in his home country.
Also announced were former champions Tegla Loroupe of Kenya (1994, 1995), 2002 champion Joyce Chepchumba of Kenya, and 40-year-old Ludmila Petrova, who will be competing in her eighth New York City Marathon after becoming the first Russian woman to win the New York race, in 2000.
The 2006 Boston Marathon champion, Rita Jeptoo of Kenya, and the second-place finisher from last year, Abderrahim Goumri of Morocco, will also join the stacked field.
These athletes join the previously announced Paula Radcliffe, the world marathon record-holder and the defending champion; U.S. Olympian and IAAF World Championships 10,000-meter bronze medalist Kara Goucher; and three-time U.S. Olympian Abdi Abdirahman in the final race of the 2007-08 World Marathon Majors (WMM) series.
�"We are thrilled to be hosting a reunion of champions at this year's ING New York City Marathon," said Wittenberg. �"With so many running greats returning to the streets of New York, including Paula to defend her title, it is sure to be a memorable race on November 2."
Tergat, 39, is a two-time Olympic medalist and former marathon world record-holder; he is returning to the streets of New York for the first time since a third-place finish in 2006. He held the world record in the marathon from 2003 to 2007, with a time of 2:04:55, before it was broken by Haile Gebrselassie. Largely absent for the last 18 months, Tergat made his return to competitive racing at the Lisbon Half-Marathon this past Sunday and finished in second place.
Ramaala, 36, is a three-time Olympian and will be competing in his fifth ING New York City Marathon; he captured the marathon title in 2004 with a breakthrough win in 2:09:28.
Current world marathon champion and reigning Olympic silver medalist Ndereba, 36, holds two IAAF World Championships Marathon crowns and was the first African woman to win the title, in 2003 in Paris. She is the only four-time women's winner at the Boston Marathon and has two Chicago Marathon titles. With two second-place finishes in the ING New York City Marathon (1999, 2003) she is looking to complete her list of achievements with a New York victory and has a chance at the World Marathon Majors crown.
Three-time Olympian Loroupe, 35, will be competing in her ninth career New York City Marathon. She was the first African woman to win the New York title, in 1994. Chepchumba, 38, the bronze medalist in the woman's Olympic marathon in 2000, will be making her sixth New York appearance having never finished lower than sixth place.
Goumri, 32, in his marathon debut at the Flora London Marathon in 2007, finished three seconds behind winner Martin Lel. At the same event this year, he set a Moroccan record of 2:05:30.
Jeptoo, 27, was on the podium for the second time at the Boston Marathon with a third-place finish in April. She hopes to better her fourth-place finish in the ING New York City Marathon 2006 this year.
Martin Lel of Kenya, the two-time winner of the ING New York City Marathon and the defending champion, will not be able to defend his title after breaking his left foot in the Lisbon Half-Marathon this past Sunday.
In the professional wheelchair field, five former ING New York City Marathon champions headline a stellar field. On the men's side, two-time defending champion and current course-record holder (1:29:22) Kurt Fearnley of Australia, 2002 and 2003 winner Krige Schabort of South Africa, and Kamel Ayari of New Rochelle, NY, the first winner in the race's official wheelchair division, in 2000, are entered. The previously announced women's field includes three-time and defending champ (2004, '05, '07) and course record-holder (1:52:38) Edith Hunkeler of Switzerland and 2006 champion Amanda McGrory of Kennett Square, PA, who leads the University of Illinois's wheelchair team. Fearnley and Hunkeler are the recent winners in the Paralympic Games Marathon in Beijing
New York Road Runners
New York Road Runners is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2008. NYRR is dedicated to promoting the sport of distance running, enhancing health and fitness for all, and responding to community needs. Our road races and other fitness programs draw upwards of 300,000 runners annually, and together with our magazine and website support and promote professional and recreational running. A staff of more than 100, assisted by thousands of volunteers, stages the ING New York City Marathon, as well as a road race nearly every weekend plus many track and cross country events. NYRR's home base in New York, and its lifelong identification with Central Park, have given many of its events iconic status, attracting the world's top professional runners. Our youth programs provide running to 50,000 schoolchildren in New York City and around the country who would otherwise have few or no fitness opportunities. For more information, visit www.nyrr.org.
The ING New York City Marathon
The premier event of New York Road Runners, the ING New York City Marathon is one of the world's great road races, drawing nearly 105,000 applicants. The race attracts many world-class professional athletes, not only for the more than $600,000 in prize money, but also for the chance to excel in the media capital of the world before two million cheering spectators and more than 300 million worldwide television viewers. As any one of the some 750,000 past participants will attest, crossing the finish line in Central Park is one of the great thrills of a lifetime. For more information, visit www.ingnycmarathon.org.
World Marathon Majors
The ING New York City Marathon is one of five events in the World Marathon Majors series that showcases the sport's top athletes and awards an unprecedented $1 million champion's prize. The WMM series also includes the Boston Marathon, the Flora London Marathon, the BMW Berlin Marathon, and the Bank of America Chicago Marathon. For more information, visit www.worldmarathonmajors.com.
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