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Seven Story Lines Ahead Of Sunday's NYC Half - RRW

Published by
RunnerSpace.com/RoadRacing   Mar 12th 2014, 2:01pm
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SEVEN STORY LINES AHEAD OF SUNDAY'S NYC HALF
By Chris Lotsbom, @ChrisLotsbom
(c) 2014 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved - Used with permission.

NEW YORK (12-Mar) -- Sunday's NYC Half here in Manhattan features 15 Olympians, three Olympic and World Championships medalists, as well as eleven national record holders. Among the list of entrants are ten men who have dipped under 1:02:00 for the half-marathon, and seven women who have broken 1:10:00. In advance of the race, which begins in Central Park, takes competitors through Times Square and finishes in lower Manhattan, Race Results Weekly took a look at seven prominent story lines.

- FARAH VS. MUTAI -- Two of the most dominant distance runners in the last three years will face off for the first time at the half-marathon distance, with both returning to a city they've had success in. Mo Farah, 30, won the 2011 NYC Half in 1:00:23, a race that was his debut 21.1 km. Geoffrey Mutai, 32, set an TCS New York City Marathon course record of 2:05:06 in 2011, then returned to the Big Apple last year to win again in 2:08:24.

Farah, the double Olympic champion at 10,000m and 5,000m, and Mutai, the fastest marathoner in all conditions, could very well take down Haile Gebrselassie's event record of 59:24, which has stood since 2007. Both are gearing up for next month's Virgin Money London Marathon, where they'll battle once again. It'll be Farah's first full marathon.


- NOTABLE DEBUTS -- Olympians Matt Tegenkamp, Molly Huddle, and Sally Kipyego will all be making their half-marathon debuts at the NYC Half. Tegenkamp, 32, has already completed the full marathon distance (2:12:28 at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon last year), though has never raced a half-marathon competition. This will be his first race of 2014.

Huddle is coming off a low key, 15:13.86 world-leading 5000m track performance indoors on March 2, and has stated that she's very excited to try the distance.

Kipyego, the 2012 Olympic silver medalist at 10,000m, has run 30:26.37 on the track for 10,000m. The last time Kipyego was in New York City, she finished fourth behind Huddle, Emily Infeld, and Shalane Flanagan at the NYRR Dash to the Finish Line 5-K, her first race since returning from multiple heel injuries that kept her on the sidelines for most of 2013. Kipyego's debut race in 2014 was a win, capturing the two mile at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in a then-world leading 9:21.04.


- BOSTON-BOUND AMERICANS -- Meb Keflezighi, Jason Hartmann, Brett Gotcher, and Jeffrey Eggleston are all racing the NYC Half five weeks before the 118th Boston Marathon on April 21. Keflezighi, 38, has already notched a season best of 1:01:23 by winning the U.S. Half Marathon Championships at the Aramco Half-Marathon in January.

Hartmann, who has finished fourth overall at two consecutive Boston Marathons, has a unique situation this weekend. On the same day he'll race 13.1 miles through Manhattan, Elise Cranny --one of the best high school runners in America who is coached by Hartmann-- will be racing in upper Manhattan at The New Balance Track & Field Center at The Armory, going for the New Balance Nationals Indoor crown at 800 meters.

Gotcher has a half-marathon best of 1:02:09, while Eggleston's personal record is 1:03:00.


- GEMMA STEEL: AMERICAN ROAD DOMINANCE -- Last summer, Great Britain's Gemma Steel left her mark on the American road racing scene, picking up podium finishes at the Oakley New York Mini 10-K (third in 32:59), TD Bank Beach to Beacon 10-K (second, 31:36), and New Balance Falmouth Road Race (second, 37:06 for 7 miles). Those achievements on the road catapulted her into the cross country season, where she won the Bupa Great Edinburgh Cross Country Meet and English National Cross Country Championships. Now the 28-year-old children's book illustrator is back state-side, racing the NYC Half in advance of the Virgin Money London Marathon where she'll make her marathon debut.  The independent Association or Road Racing Statisticians ranks Steel as Britain's #1 distance runner now.


- REMATCH OF 2013? -- At the 2013 NYC Half, a pair of international athletes made headlines thanks to gutsy performances that earned them national records and personal bests. Burundi's Diane Nukuri-Johnson edged Croatia's Lisa Stublic for second place, 1:09:12 to 1:09:18, both surprising many with their podium finishes. Both races were precursors to strong spring marathons, as Nukuri-Johnson would finish eighth at the 2013 Boston Marathon (2:29:54) and Stublic would win the 2013 Zürich Marathon in 2:25:44. Will they battle again in 2014?


- RETURN OF DESIREE (DAVILA) LINDEN -- Hansons-Brooks Original Distance Project athlete and 2012 Olympian Desiree Linden will lace up her racing flats for the first time this year. Like so many of her fellow competitors, Linden is racing in preparation for the Boston Marathon, where she finished second at in 2011 in the fastest time ever by an American woman in Boston: 2:22:38. Linden's last half-marathon was a 1:10:51 performance at the Sanyo Women's Road Race in Japan last December. Her performance here could be an indicator of what's to come in Boston.


- NEW RECORD-ELIGIBLE COURSE -- With a new course for 2014, the NYC Half will be World and American record eligible. Marks could fall, especially considering the personal bests of Farah (60:10) and Mutai (58:58). Mutai has broken 60 minutes six times since 2009. The fastest entrant in the women's field is Kenya's Caroline Kilel, a 1:08:16 performance run in 2009 at the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships.

   NOTE: The NYC Half will be televised LIVE on Sunday at 7:30 a.m. on WABC-TV in the New York Tri-State area, and can also be watched live globally on-line at 7online.com or ESPN3 --Ed.

ENDS



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