Field set for 2008 Chicago Marathon
Two-time women's champion Berhane Adere of Ethiopia will attempt a first-ever three-peat at the 2008 Bank of America Chicago Marathon, while six-time top-three Chicago finisher Daniel Njenga of Kenya returns to go for his first win in Chicago.
The additions of Adere and Njenga complete an elite field for the Oct. 12 race. Adere has thrilled Chicago fans the last two years winning back-to-back championships in the final stretches, most recently sprinting past an unaware Adriana Pirtea (Romania) in the final meters of the 2007 race. In 2006, Adere and Galina Bogomolova (Russia) trailed Constantina Tomescu-Dita (Romania), who led the field at record pace through the first 16 miles of the 26.2-mile course. Catching the leader in the 22nd mile, Adere and Bogomolova battled shoulder to shoulder until the Ethiopian edged into the lead and broke the tape only five seconds in front of runner-up Bogomolova.
Adding drama to the mix, Adere will face off against both Pirtea and Tomescu-Dita in the 31st running of the Chicago Marathon. Tomescu-Dita arrives hot off an Olympic gold medal win in the women's marathon in Beijing while her fellow Romanian Pirtea shaved five minutes off her marathon debut in Chicago last fall with a 2:28:52 in London in April.
Njenga has finished second or third in each of his previous six consecutive Chicago appearances, including a third-place showing behind the photo finish of Patrick Ivuti (Kenya) and Jaouad Gharib (Morocco). Njenga is one of six men in the field who have posted personal bests below 2:07:00.
Here's the field for Chicago Marathon with each runner's personal best time:
Women's field
Berhane Adere, ETH, 2:20:42
Bezunesh Bekele, ETH, 2:23:09
Alevtina Biktimirova, RUS, 2:25:12
Desiree Davila, USA, 2:37:50
Colleen De Reuck, USA, 2:26:35
Zoila Gomez, USA, 2:33:53
Lidiya Grigoryeva, RUS, 2:25:10
Kate O'Neill, USA, 2:36:15
Adriana Pirtea, ROU, 2:28:52
Kiyoko Shimahara, JPN, 2:26:14
Worknesh Tola, ETH, 2:25:37
Constantina Tomescu-Dita, ROU, 2:21:30
Men's field
Moses Arusei, KEN, 2:06:50
Christopher Cheboiboch, KEN, 2:08:17
Timothy Cherigat, KEN, 2:09:34
Evans Cheruiyot, KEN, 2:09:16
Joseph Chirlee, KEN, 2:12:10
Arata Fujiwara, JPN, 2:08:40
James Getanda, KEN, 2:11:50
Salim Kipsang, KEN, 2:07:29
William Kipsang, KEN, 2:05:49
Richard Limo, KEN, 2:06:45
David Mandago, KEN, 2:07:23
Emmanuel Mutai, KEN, 2:06:15
Daniel Njenga, KEN, 2:06:16
Michael Reneau, USA, 2:17:46
Todd Snyder, USA, 2:21:00
The 2008 race will start and finish in Chicago's Grant Park beginning with the wheelchair race at 7:50 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 12. In advance of the race, a two-day Health & Fitness Expo will be held at McCormick Place on Oct. 10 and Oct. 11.
More information on the race is available at chicagomarathon.com.