Marathon Olympic Trials A Large Scale Affair
On the third of November, 2007, a Saturday, the Olympic Team trials for Men's Marathon event will be held in New York City, care of the New York Road Runners (NYRR) and USA Track and Field (USATF). The announcement that the competition is to be the largest since 1984 was made Tuesday, the twenty-third of October 2007. The November Olympic Trials for Men's Marathon, which will determine which three runners would be representing the United States of America at the 2008 Olympic Games to be held in Beijing, China, has a grand total of one hundred and thirty-four participants in the confirmed entry list – there are one hundred and seventy-nine athletes all in all who qualified for the Trials.
As always, there are several well-known, if not outright big names that are included in the final official entry list of the race. San Diego, California's pride and joy Meb Keflezighi, who had won an Olympic bronze medal back in 2004, is one of the favored winners of the Men's Marathon Olympic Trials. Ossining, New York's American record holder Khalid Khannouchi will also be running the race to earn that much-desired spot in the US Olympic Team. Yet another favorite is Boulder, Louisville Colorado local Alan Culpepper, who had dominated the 2004 Olympic Trials – the athlete is very much determined to help his hometown, Boulder, rejuvenate its reputation for producing world-class distance runners.
Apart from these supposed favorites, there are other contenders that would prove the US Olympic Team Trials for Men's Marathon to be one of the most exciting events of the year. Abdi Abdirahman, who hails from Tucson, Arizona and had already participated in the Olympics twice (as well as having a personal best that's under two hours and nine seconds), is one of the runners that is getting fans pumped up. Brian Sell of Rochester Hills, Michigan, who had caught the eye of many back in 2004 at the Olympic Team Trials held in Birmingham, Alabama also joins the ranks, and some speculate that the hard-working marathon runner could be a dark horse in the competition. 2004 Olympian Dan Browne, who is also one of the four previous USA Marathon champions participating in the race (the others are Ryan Shay, Alan Culpepper and Mbarak Hussein) and an accomplished 10000 runner, is bound to make things very challenging for his opponents. And then, there is Ryan Hall from Big Bear, California, who holds the American half marathon record of fifty-nine minutes and forty-three seconds – the twenty-five year old has a very promising middle distance and long distance track record, and he is most certainly someone to keep an eye on.
The US Olympic Trials for Men's Marathon will have a route that starts in front of the famous Rockefeller Center and will end on the west side of Central Park, at the Tavern on the Green. The beginning of the race will be covered by NBC's The Today Show, and its entirety will be streamed live on the NBC Sports website. The race champion will be receiving sixty thousand US dollars, on top of the spot in the US Olympic Team.
