Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009

Marathon season concludes in New York

On the men's side, defending champion and '06 champion Marilson Gomes dos Santos (2:08:37) of Brazil and '03 and '07 champion Martin Lel (2:05:15) of Kenya are aiming to join the elite list of three-time winners which includes Americans Alberto Salazar and Bill Rodgers.

Kenyan James Kwambai (2:04:27) is the fastest runner entered, while four-time Boston Marathon champion Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot (2:07:14) hasn't finished outside of the top-five in a World Marathon Majors event since 2004.

Ryan Hall (2:06:17), who was third at this year's Boston Marathon, leads a strong group of American entrants. Joining Hall in the men's elite field are Abdi Abdirahman (2:08:56), two-time NYC Marathon podium finisher Meb Keflezighi (2:09:21), Brian Sell (2:10:47), Dan Browne (2:11:35), Jason Lehmkuhle (2:12:54), Bolota Asmerom (2:16:37) and Fasil Bizuneh (2:16:47).

While Radcliffe's world record time of 2:15:25 trumps the next best women's time by six minutes, she will still have to contend with 2000 NYC Marathon champion Ludmila Petrova (2:21:29), '09 Boston Marathon champion Salina Kosgei (2:23:22), '08 Boston champion Dire Tune (2:24:40), three-time Olympic medalist Derartu Tulu (2:23:30) and Japan's Yuri Kano (2:24:40), who will be making her NYC Marathon debut.

The men's course record of 2:07:43 was set in 2001 by Tesfaye Jifar and the women's record of 2:22:31 was set in 2003 by Margaret Okayo.

The 26.2-mile race starts at the Verazano-Narrow Bridge in Staten Island and finishes at Central Park in Manhattan. The professional women's race is scheduled to take off at 9:10 a.m., while the professional men's race will start at 9:40 p.m.