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Sep-28-2010
Top Europeans Confirmed For ING NYC Marathon
by David Monti
(c) Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved
NEW YORK (28-Sep) -- Organizers of the ING New York City Marathon continued to add athletes to their professional fields, announcing yesterday that some of Europe's top marathon runners will be competing in the 41st edition of the race on Sunday, November 7.
On the men's side, reigning European marathon champion Viktor Röthlin was confirmed by New York Road Runners president and CEO Mary Wittenberg. The 35 year-old Swiss, who has a personal best time of 2:07:23 and won the bronze medal at the 2007 IAAF World Championships, will be running New York for the second time. He ran the race in 2005 and finished seventh.
"I like New York because it is a race like the European Championships, World Championships, and Olympics with no pacemakers; you race each other and not against time," Röthlin said through a media release. "I have always been strong in the last part of a race, and you need to be very tough in Central Park. In the past, some bad stories and good stories have been written in Central Park. I hope to write a good one."
The top European women include French record holder Christelle Daunay of France, who finished third in New York last year and has a career best time of 2:24:22; Ana Dulce Félix of Portugal, recently second at the Bupa Great North Run who will be making her marathon debut; Rosaria Console and Bruna Genovese of Italy, who have best times of 2:26:45 and 2:25:28, respectively; and Inga Abitova and Tatyana Pushkareva of Russia who have 2:22:19 and
2:26:14 personal bests to their credit. Abitova is a two-time European Championships medalist.
"The Europeans are poised to make a major statement about their legitimacy as a marathon power," Wittenberg observed. "Viktor and Christelle are seasoned competitors at the top of their games, and Ana is a newcomer to the marathon with loads of promise. And the Italians always seem to do something special here, so keep an eye on Rosaria and Bruna."
These athletes join an already powerful line-up including world record holder Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia; men's defending champion Meb Keflezighi of Mammoth Lakes, Calif.; 2009 IAAF World Half-Marathon Championships bronze medalist Dathan Ritzenhein of Portland, Ore.; 2009 IAAF World Half-Marathon Championships gold medalist Mary Keitany of Kenya; 2008 Olympic 10,000m bronze medalist Shalane Flanagan of Portland, Ore.; world cross country champions Gebre Gebremariam and Werknesh Kidane of Ethiopia; and the second-fastest Briton of all-time Mara Yamauchi.
The ING New York City Marathon is the final stop for the 2009/2010 World Marathon Majors series and offers an $800,000 prize money purse for able-bodied runners (more for wheelchair racers). The race will also host the 2010 USA Marathon Championships for women who will be competing for a $150,000 purse.
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