FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Olympic Hopefuls Bobby Curtis and Chris Thompson Headline
Athlete Additions in NYC Half
Two-time World Marathon Majors Series Champion
Liliya Shobukhova withdraws from Field Due to Injury
Race to be Broadcast Live on WABC-TV and Streamed Live at
tv.nyrr.org Beginning at 7:00 a.m.
New York, March 7, 2012-Former NCAA champion and American Olympic
10,000-meter hopeful Bobby Curtis and 2011 NYRR Dash to the Finish Line 5K
champion and British Olympic hopeful Chris Thompson lead a talented group
of additions to the professional field for the NYC Half on Sunday, March
18, it was announced today by New York Road Runners officials.
Two-time World Marathon Majors series champion Liliya Shobukhova of Russia
was forced to withdraw from the race due to a hamstring injury. Shobukhova,
an early favorite for the Olympic Marathon in London this summer, was set
to open her 2012 season at the NYC Half.
Curtis, 27, of Ardmore, PA, became the seventh-fastest American of all time
at 10,000 meters when he ran 27:24.67 to finish second at the Stanford
Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational in April 2011. He is a two-time Team
USA member for the IAAF World Cross Country Championships and won the 2008
NCAA Championship at 5000 meters in 13:33.93. Curtis made his marathon
debut at the ING New York City Marathon 2011, finishing 15th in a time of
2:16:44. He has a half-marathon best of 1:01:52, set in September 2011.
Thompson, 30, of Great Britain, was the 10,000-meter silver medalist at the
2010 European Athletics Championships in Barcelona. At the 2011 Stanford
Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational, he ran 27:27.36 for 10,000 meters, the
third-fastest time in British history. Thompson won the 2011 NYRR Dash to
the Finish Line 5K during ING New York City Marathon weekend. The NYC Half
will be his debut at the distance.
Additional athletes on the men's side include:
·Collis Birmingham, 27, of Australia, a former Australian 10,000-meter
record-holder and 2012 London Olympics hopeful. The NYC Half will be his
half-marathon debut.
·Ben St. Lawrence, 30, the Australian 10,000-meter record-holder and a
recently announced member of his nation's 2012 Olympic team. Like his
training partner Birmingham, he will be making his half-marathon debut.
·Michael Shelley, 28, of Australia, the 2010 Commonwealth Games marathon
silver medalist.
Additional athletes in the women's field include:
·Freya Murray, 28, of Great Britain, who is currently vying for the third
and last spot on the British Olympic women's marathon team.
·Diane Nukuri-Johnson, 28, of Burundi, a 2000 Olympian and holder of
several national records. She was a star runner at the University of Iowa.
·Irvette Van Blerk, 24, of South Africa, who finished ninth at the NYC Half
2011 in a personal best time of 1:10:56.
·Karolina Jarzynska, 30, Poland's best women's distance runner and a likely
member of her country's Olympic marathon team.
·Lisa Weightman, 33, of Australia, a 2008 Olympian and the 2010
Commonwealth Games bronze medalist in the marathon.
NYRR's flagship half-marathon, in its seventh running, will feature a
race-record field of 15,000 runners and a thrilling new course. Also new
this year, WABC-TV will be airing the NYC Half live, beginning at 7:00
a.m., as part of NYRR's recently announced comprehensive television
agreement with ESPN/WABC-TV. The race will also be broadcast live on the
New York Road Runners website. Viewers can tune in at 7:00–9:00 a.m. EDT on
Sunday, March 18 to tv.nyrr.org to watch the race coverage. The NYC Half
will again offer a prize purse of $100,000-the largest half-marathon purse
in the United States. The men's and women's champions will each earn
$20,000. The race continues to attract prominent professional athletes and
recreational runners from around the world.
The previously announced men's field includes three world-class Americans:
2012 Olympic Trials Marathon champion Meb Keflezighi, two-time Olympian
Dathan Ritzenhein, and 2011 World Championships 10,000-meter runner Scott
Bauhs. Also announced were Moroccan Olympian Abderrahime Bouramdane; Kenyan
Peter Kirui, who competed in the 10,000 meters at the 2011 IAAF World
Championships in Daegu, South Korea; Canadian Olympian Eric Gillis; Wesley
Korir of Kenya, runner-up at the 2011 Bank of American Chicago Marathon;
Ethiopian Olympian Deriba Merga, the 2009 Boston Marathon champion; and
Kenyan Samuel Chelanga, the NCAA 10,000-meter record-holder.
The women's pro field includes previously announced top American runners
Kara Goucher and Desiree Davila (both members of this year's U.S. Olympic
Marathon team), Janet Cherobon-Bawcom, Julie Culley, Jeannette Faber, and
Stephanie Pezzullo. Molly Pritz, the top American female finisher in the
ING New York City Marathon 2011, was forced to withdraw from the race due
to illness. Also announced were Mexican Olympian Madaí Pérez, British
Olympian Jo Pavey, Dutch Olympian Hilda Kibet, and Claire Hallissey, a
contender for the British Olympic marathon team.
The NYC Half will offer runners a spectacular tour of Manhattan as they
race through Central Park, Times Square, the Hudson River waterfront, and
lower Manhattan, en route to the scenic South Street Seaport finish line.
At the Post-Race Festival Presented by Poland Spring, there will be
refreshments, entertainment by Irish rockers Black 47 and the Shinbone
Alley Stilt Band, treatments supplied by the Swedish Institute of Massage,
and much more. The Festival is free and open to the public.
About NYRR
New York Road Runners was founded in 1958 when a small group of passionate
runners vowed to bring running to the people. Over the past 53 years, NYRR
has grown from a local running club to the world's premier community
running organization. NYRR's mission is to empower everyone, of all ages
and abilities-beginners and competitive athletes, the young and the
elderly, adult professionals and underserved schoolchildren-to improve
their health and well-being through the power of running and fitness.
NYRR's races, community events, instruction and training resources, and
youth programs give hundreds of thousands of people each year the
motivation, know-how, and opportunity to start running and keep running for
life. NYRR's premier event, the famed ING New York City Marathon, attracts
the world's top pro runners and committed amateurs alike while also raising
millions of dollars annually for charity and driving economic impact for
the City. But NYRR is equally committed to the runners of tomorrow,
passionately providing youth fitness programs that educate and inspire more
than 100,000 kids in underserved communities in New York City, all 50
states, and around the world.
Headquartered in New York City, NYRR implements a unique nonprofit model
that teams contributed and earned income to make all its efforts possible.
To learn more, please visit www.nyrr.org.
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