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With such a world class field present at the 2007 New York City Marathon and the buzz building for the Olympic Trials, Abderrahim Goumri (MAR) had announced his appearance at the race two months ago. A 5,000 meter and 10,000 meter specialist, Goumry debuted in the marathon distance at the 2007 London Marathon, losing to Martin Lel (KEN) in a photo finish [Lel – 2:07:41, Goumri – 2:07:43]. Although Goumri was stymied by the hot and humid conditions at the 2007 World Champion Marathon race in Osaka, he comes to New York with a secret weapon in his arsenal – Abdelkadar El Mouaziz who is his coach. El Mouaziz is a top distance runner to his own credit with a resume with over ten sub 2:10 marathon finishes and champion of the 2000 New York City Marathon, two time winner of the 1999 and 2000 London Marathon. It is to be expected that El Mouaziz had in part influenced Goumri to take on the New York City Marathon challenge. Other reasoning being to rematch Martin Lel who stole his victory in London and to bounce back from the his experience at the Osaka World Championships.

Goumri is prepared by studying the course under the tutelage of El Mouaziz along with familiarizing himself with the competition without being distracted by them. “I want to focus on myself on how to save my energy for the last 5K of 10K rather than watch the pack.” In terms of training, Goumri has prepared for the hilly ups and downs and trained in altitude near his home in Morocco. He has also forgone track work for this New York City race reasoning that the course is not flat.

Goumri flies under the radar as most media outlets in the US have little inkling of what unfolded in London in April and what this man is capable of. He’ll be there to challenge the leaders.