NYC Half-Marathon Will Be America's Richest
By David Monti
(c) 2010 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved
NEW YORK (13-Jan) -- The fifth edition of the NYC Half-Marathon here on
Sunday, March 21, will be the richest 21.1 km race in the United States
with a $100,000 prize money purse, the New York Road Runners announced
yesterday. Moreover, the $20,000 first prize will be the largest
offered by any non-marathon road race in the 50 States.
"The aim has always been for the NYC Half-Marathon to serve as a
counterpart to the ING New York City Marathon and for New York to host
the two greatest road races in the world," explained New York Road
Runners president and CEO Mary Wittenberg in a statement. "This move
to the spring and increase in prize money are important next steps in
that direction."
The first four editions of the race had been held in the summer in July
and August. This will be the first year that the race from Central
Park to Battery Park will be held in the spring. The date, chosen in
cooperation with the New York City government, puts the race four weeks
before the Boston Marathon and five weeks before the Virgin London
Marathon, making it the perfect marathon tune-up for recreational and
elite runners, alike.
The Road Runners held a lottery, which closed on Jan. 5, to determine
the field. Over 19,000 people applied and Wittenberg expects about
10,000 runners to finish the race (last year's race on Aug. 16, had
10,167 finishers). Although the lottery is closed, runners can still
obtain special charity entries at http://www.nyrr.org.
Some of the world's best athletes have competed in the NYC
Half-Marathon in it's short four-year history, including multiple
Olympic medalists Haile Gebrselassie and Catherine Ndereba, who hold
the course records of 59:24 and 69:43, respectively. Last year's
champions were Tadese Tola (61:06) and Paula Radcliffe (69:45).
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