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photo: Victah Sailer / PhotoRun Reigning London Champ Kebede Looks to Continue His Dominance and Collect the $500K WMM bonus

The New York City Marathon always attracts a top field marked bey statistics and prior elite finishes.. The 2013 field is no different, and will include: three Olympic medalists, three past champions, seven men who have run sub-2:07, the reigning Olympic and World champion, the reigning New York and London Marathon champions and more… But a few of these men stand above the others and we’ll expect the race to be among Geoffrey Mutai, Tsegaye Kebede and Stephen Kiprotich with a number of others thrown in to keep it interesting…

The man with the most on the line is Tsegaye Kebede who stands atop the World Marathon Majors (WMM) leaderboard and stands to win a $500K bonus if he can finish top two (or at least ahead of Stephen Kiprotich) at New York. Kebede twice finished runner-up in the WMM standings: in 2010 he was bested by Sammy Wanjiru in a down-to-the-wire race at the Chicago Marathon and in 2012 Kebede was a distant second in the standings to a dominant Geoffrey Mutai. Kebede, the 2008 Olympic bronze medalist and reigning London Marathon champion, ran the World Championships Marathon in August and was a late entrant to the field.

Geoffrey Mutai is arguably the favorite for the 2013 race. Mutai set the New York Marathon record in 2011 – 2:05:06 – and has five times run the marathon faster than the personal best time of anyone else in the field. Stephen Kiprotich has one of the “slower” personal best times in the field (2:07:20), but considering that he is both the reigning Olympic gold medalist and reigning World Champion at the marathon, he has shown that he has what it takes to race in a tactical marathon such as New York (where the race does not rely on pacers).

Stephen Biwott is the man with the second best marathon on his record – a 2:05:12 win at the 2012 Paris Marathon – as well as a number of other credible marathons but he comes to the field with less experience than some others.

Rounding out the field are three crowd favorites and proven winners. Meb Keflezighi has been one of the most consistent marathoners and a man who put American marathoning back on the map. From his 2004 Olympics Silver medal to his 2009 New York City Marathon win (not to mention his two other NYC top three finishes) to his 2012 Olympics fourth place finish – Keflezighi has had a long and successful career and will garner more cheering and more hope than anyone else on the course on marathon Sunday. Like Keflezighi, Martin Lel has had more top three finishes at WMM events than any other marathoner, including two wins at the New York City Marathon (2003 & 2007) and three wins at the London Marathon (2005, 2007 & 2008). While many believed Lel was past his prime, Lel returned for back-to-back runner-up finishes at London in 2011 and 2012; and like those years, the pundits will not be expecting much from Lel…but he might surprise. Wesley Korir surprised all with his runner-up finish at the 2011 Chicago Marathon (2:06:15) which he followed up with a win at the 2012 Boston Marathon and a personal best at the 2012 Chicago Marathon (2:06:13). Korir, a Kenyan educated in the USA, turned his marathon success into a political career in Kenya and we will see how he balances his running and newfound public duties.

Male Elite Athletes
Athlete	Country	Bib	Personal Best	NYC
Geoffrey Mutai (32)	KEN	1	2:03:02, Boston, 2011	History
Stephen Kiprotich (24)	UGA	2	2:07:20, Enschede, 2011	History
Tsegaye Kebede (26)	ETH	3	2:04:38, Chicago, 2012	History
Martin Lel (35)	KEN	4	2:05:15, London, 2008	History
Meb Keflezighi (38)	USA	6	2:09:08, 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Men’s Marathon, 2012	History
Wesley Korir (30)	KEN	7	2:06:13, Chicago, 2012	History
Stanley Biwott (27)	KEN	8	2:05:12, Paris, 2012	History
Peter Kirui (25)	KEN	9	2:06:31, Frankfurt, 2011	History
Yuki Kawauchi (26)	JPN	10	2:08:14, Seoul, 2013	History
Lusapho April (31)	RSA	11	2:08:32, Hannover, 2013	History
Bob Tahri (34)	FRA	12	Debut	History
Daniele Meucci (28)	ITA	14	2:13:49, Rome, 2010	History
Ryan Vail (27)	USA	15	2:12:43, 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Men’s Marathon, 2012	History
Masato Imai (29)	JPN	16	2:10:29, Tokyo, 2013	History
Jason Hartmann (32)	USA	17	2:11:06, Chicago, 2010	History
Jackson Kiprop (26)	UGA	18	2:09:32, Mumbai, 2013	History
Julius Arile (30)	KEN	19	2:12:13, Praha, 2012	History
Jeffrey Eggleston (29)	USA	20	2:12:03, Chicago, 2012	History
Guor Maker (29)	USA	21	2:12:55, San Diego, 2012	History
Cesar Lizano (31)	CRC	22	2:17:50, Chicago, 2011	History
Augustus Maiyo (30)	USA	23	2:20:20, Washington DC, 2012	History
Kevin Pool (30)	USA	24	2:18:59, Boston, 2013	History
Christian Thompson (25)	USA	25	Debut	History
Harbert Okuti (28)	UGA	26	Debut	History
Radoslaw Dudycz (39)	POL	27	2:14:58, Debno, 2009	History
Allen Wagner (33)	USA	28	2:17:16, 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Men’s Marathon, 2012	History
Paolo Natali (33)	ITA	29	2:19:53, London, 2011	History
Michael Cassidy (28)	USA	30	2:18:52, Sacramento, 2011	History
Mike Popejoy (27)	USA	34	Debut	History
Viktor Rothlin (39)	SUI	39	2:07:23, Tokyo, 2008	History
Danilo Goffi (40)	ITA	40	2:08:33, Rotterdam, 1998	History
José Manuel Martinez (42)	ESP	42	2:08:09, Rotterdam, 2003	History
Anders Szalkai (43)	SWE	43	2:12:43, Austin, 2001	History
Franklin Tenorio (44)	ECU	44	2:10:22, Rome, 1998	History
Hermann Achmüller (42)	ITA	46	2:18:56, London, 2005	History
Tesfaye Girma (31)	ETH	47	2:10:18, Reims, 2010	History
Ketema Nigusse (32)	ETH	48	2:15:45, Berlin, 2008	History
Vladimir Kotov (55)	BLR	55	2:10:58, 1980 Olympic Games – Men’s Marathon, 1980	History
Ryan Hall (31)	USA		2:04:58, Boston, 2011	History
German Silva (45)	MEX		2:08:56, Boston, 1998	History
Dan Daly (28)	PER		2:20:26, Duluth, 2013	History
Ben Payne (32)	USA		2:21:01, Boston, 2011	History