Professional Men's Field
Abdi Abdirahman United States
Age: 32
Abdirahman, the three-time Olympian and four-time USA 10K champion also known as "Abdi," "the mayor of Tucson," and "the Black Cactus," finished sixth--the top American--in last year's ING New York City Marathon. He has a personal best of 2:08:56 from Chicago in 2006. Born in Somalia, Abdi became an American citizen in 1999 after graduating from the University of Arizona.
Bolota Asmerom United States
Age: 31
Asmerom was 10th in last year's ING New York City Marathon with his 2:16:37 debut. He has narrowly missed making the U.S. team for the last two major championships--the 2009 IAAF World Championships in Berlin and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games--by finishing fourth in the 5000 meters both times at the USA Outdoor Championships. He represented his native Eritrea at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.
Fasil Bizuneh United States
Age: 29
Bizuneh, who holds a degree in chemical engineering from Arizona State University--where he was a four-time All-American--was born in Germany to Ethiopian parents who fled political chaos in their country. The family settled in Indianapolis, and Bizuneh became an American citizen in 1987. He qualified for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Men's Marathon with a 2:18:14 in his marathon debut in 2006, and then improved by 1:31 at the Trials. This will be his first time running the ING New York City Marathon.
Abderrahime Bouramdane Morocco
Age: 31
Bouramdane finished fifth in his ING New York City Marathon debut last year after finishing second in the 2008 Boston Marathon. He has won marathons in Ottawa, Marrakesh, and Tunis. He began his career in 1993, drawing inspiration from Abdessalem Rhadi, a fellow Moroccan who won the silver medal (behind the barefoot Abebe Bikila) in the 1960 Rome Olympic Marathon.
Dan Browne United States
Age: 34
Browne made the 2004 U.S. Olympic team in the marathon and the 10,000 meters and competed in both events in the Athens Games. Since then, he has had two knee surgeries and an emergency appendectomy, which kept him away from the marathon distance. He has raced strongly in 2009, winning the USA 25K Championship in Grand Rapids, MI, and qualifying for the IAAF World Championships marathon in Berlin, where he finished 24th in 2:16:49.
Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot
Kenya
Age: 31
Cheruiyot will forever be known as the first male champion of the World Marathon Majors series--his three wins and a fourth place for the 2006-07 competition gave him a commanding victory. Cheruiyot is the youngest man to have won four Boston Marathon titles, and he won the 2006 Chicago Marathon. At six feet, two inches tall and 143 pounds, Cheruiyot stands out. When he's not training, he enjoys farming and spending time with his wife and daughter.
Jaouad Gharib Morocco
Age: 37
The defending Olympic marathon silver medalist and a two-time IAAF World Champion at that distance, Gharib holds the Moroccan records for the half-marathon and marathon. He withstood the repeated surges made by eventual Beijing Olympic marathon champion Samuel Wanjiru in a tough battle for the gold, yielding only in the final two kilometers. Now 37, Gharib shows no signs of slowing down; his 2:05:27 at this year's London Marathon was a personal best.
Marilson Gomes dos Santos Defending Champion
Brazil
Age: 32
Gomes is the defending champion of the ING New York City Marathon and will attempt to become a three-time winner this year. Nearly unknown when he won the race in 2006, he became the first South American champion after making a surprise breakaway on First Avenue. In 2007, Gomes ran the fastest half-marathon ever by an athlete from the Western Hemisphere with his 59:33 seventh-place finish at the IAAF World Road Running Championships; this year, he was 16th in the IAAF World Championships Marathon.
Ryan Hall United States
Age: 27
Hall surprised the running world in 2007 when he cut more than a minute off the American record at the half-marathon in his first try at the distance. Later that year, he ran the fastest-ever debut marathon by an American, 2:08:24, to take seventh place in London. Last year, he returned to London and ran 2:06:17, becoming the second-fastest American ever. He smashed the U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Men's Marathon record when he ran 2:09:02 in Central Park in 2007. This fall, Hall and his wife, Sara, also a professional runner, announced the formation of The Hall Steps Foundation, a charitable initiative that will fund programs to create a better life for youth living in poverty.
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Meb Keflezighi United States
Age: 34
The 2004 Olympic silver medalist in the marathon, Keflezighi has won the USA Cross Country Championship and national road titles at seven miles and the half-marathon so far this year, and his ninth-place 2:09:21 in London in April was a personal best. Keflezighi was born in Eritrea; his parents moved his family of 11 children out of the country when a war with Ethiopia would have forced the boys into the military. They lived in Italy and eventually relocated to San Diego, CA; Keflezighi became a U.S. citizen in 1998.
James Kwambai Kenya
Age: 26
Kwambai is now the third-fastest marathoner of all time after losing this year's Rotterdam Marathon to Duncan Kibet by less than one second; both ran 2:04:27. He was also the runner-up at the 2007 Boston Marathon. In 2006, Kwambai won the Brescia (Italy) Marathon, the Beijing Marathon, and the Rock 'n' Roll Virginia Beach Half-Marathon. He set his half-marathon personal best of 59:09 in Rotterdam this year.
Jason Lehmkuhle United States
Age: 32
Lehmkuhle finished eighth in last year's ING New York City Marathon, and he was fifth in the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Men's Marathon in a personal-record 2:12:54. A member of the Team USA Minnesota distance program, Lehmkuhle won Missouri state high school track and cross country titles and went on to become an All-American in the 5000 and 10,000 meters at Iowa's Drake University. He is also a professional graphic designer.
Patrick Makau Kenya
Age: 24
A half-marathon specialist, Makau made an auspicious marathon debut earlier this year in Rotterdam, where he finished fourth in 2:06:14. In last year's NYC Half-Marathon, he traded the lead throughout the race with eventual winner Tadese Tola of Ethiopia. Makau ran the second-fastest half-marathon time in history at this year's RAK Half-Marathon; he has broken the one-hour mark for the distance a record seven times.
Hendrick RamaalaSouth Africa
Age: 37
A four-time Olympian and a two-time World Half-Marathon Championships silver medalist, Ramaala will run in his seventh ING New York City Marathon; he made a major breakthrough by winning the race in 2004. Defending his New York title in 2005, he lost one of the most memorable duels in the sport's history when he sprinted shoulder-to-shoulder with then-world record-holder Paul Tergat and lost by three-tenths of a second. He holds several South African records, including 59:20 for the half-marathon. Ramaala has a law degree from Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg.
Brian Sell United States
Age: 31
Sell took third place in the U.S. 2008 Olympic Team Trials - Men's Marathon and qualified for the Beijing Olympic Games Marathon, in which he finished 22nd. He exemplifies the term "strength runner," training for long periods at 160 miles per week and sometimes more with the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project in Rochester Hills, MI. He will make his ING New York City Marathon debut following a new personal-record half-marathon of 1:02:36 at the USA Half-Marathon Championships in Houston this year.
Jorge Torres United States
Age: 29
A 2008 U.S. Olympian at 10,000 meters, Torres will be making his marathon debut in New York. He took the third and last qualifying spot in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials 10,000 meters last year and then finished 25th in Beijing. Torres has been successful in New York before: His two victories in the USA 8K Championship were both at New York City venues -- Randall's Island in 2005 and Central Park last year.
Additional Pro Entrants:
Gabriele Abate, Italy
Hermann Achmüller, Italy
Nick Arciniaga, USA
Mohamed Awol, Ethiopia
Ryan Bolton, USA
Nigidio Bourifa, Italy
Travis Boyd, USA
Stephen Chemlany, Kenya
Chala Dechase, Ethiopia
Teklu Tefera Deneke, Ethiopia
Deresse Deniboba, Ethiopia
Josh Eberly, USA
Edvard Gapak, Ukraine
Peter Gilmore, USA
Tesfaye Girma, Ethiopia
Tommy Greenless, USA
Matt Hooley, USA
Fred Joslyn, USA
Kassahun Kabiso, Ethiopia
Sergei Kaledin, Russia
Max King, USA
Ryan Kirkpatrick, USA
Jackson Kotut Kipkoech, Kenya
Chris Lundstrom, USA
Dan McGrath, USA
Josh Moen, USA
Bryan Morseman, USA
Chris Olinger, USA
Josh Ordway, USA
Christopher Raabe, USA
Mike Reneau, USA
Celedonio Rodriguez, USA
Mike Sayenko, USA
Patrick Tarpy, USA
Halefom Abede Tsegaye, Ethiopia
Genna Tufa, Ethiopia
Allen Wagner, USA
