Paul Tergat and Hendrick Ramaala will both run again on Sunday. © Victah Sailer
With almost 40,000 runners and an extraordinarily strong elite field, the ING New York City Marathon will take place this Sunday. Last year, on the difficult and hilly New York course, a thrilling duel for victory developed over the final miles. World record holder Paul Tergat (Kenya/2:04:55) won in 2:09:30 hours. He was just one second ahead of Hendrick Ramaala from South Africa. Both will be at the starting line on the Verrazano Bridge again this year. There is little information on Paul Tergat’s shape though. After he could not train as planned, he cancelled his half marathon race at the Great North Run on October 1st. In contrast Hendrick Ramaala won this race in style. In addition to Tergat and Ramaala, William Kipsang (Kenya) adds another sub-2:07 runner (2:06:39) to the elite field on Sunday.
In the women’s race, last year’s winner will run as well: Jelena Prokopcuka (Lithuania) won in 2005 running 2:24:41. Susan Chepkemei (Kenya), runner-up in 2005, and Deena Kastor, winner of the both Chicago and London, will also be in contention.
New York is not so much about chasing times. Very fast winning times are relatively rare. But it is all about winning. Victory at this marathon is a career highlight—for an American in particular. Meb Keflezighi, who won a sensational silver medal at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens dreams about a New York Marathon victory. Last year he finished third, the year before he had been second, although the race had been relatively close to the Olympic marathon he ran in Athens. The Olympic Champion Stefano Baldini (Italy) will run on Sunday as well. He won gold at the European Championships in August, which did not leave him much time to relax and then prepare again for the next marathon. But there are other athletes who might contend for the victory on Sunday. One who recently stopped Meb Keflezighi’s winning ambitions is Tom Nyariki. The former Kenyan 5,000-meter world-class runner, who is a KIMbia athlete, won the inaugural New York Half Marathon ahead of the American and will now run as well in Manhattan.
Deena Kastor has a good chance for an American victory on Sunday. The 33 year-old Olympic bronze medalist wants to win the New York Marathon for the first time as well. She won in London in April, becoming the eighth women to break the 2:20 barrier (2:19:36). “It was hard to decide between Chicago and New York because both races are among the best in the world and they belong to the World Marathon Majors. But I already won Chicago, and I really want to win New York as well,” said Deena Kastor, who could take the overall lead in the World Marathon Majors Series (WMM) with a victory in New York. In one year the best man and best woman of the WMM Series will each be awarded $500,000 USD. But money is already on the line in New York on Sunday. Both winners will earn a record prize of $130,000 USD. The total prize purse for the 2006 race is $700,000 USD.
