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A Race Like No Other
2016 TCS New York City Marathon Men's Preview and Starter List
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photo: Victah Sailer / PhotoRun
Stanley Biwott Will Seek To Defend
His New York City Maraton Title
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As we have mentioned in other portions of our 2016 NYC Marathon coverage, attracting a top field is especially difficult in an Olympic year. With that, we can contrast our preview of the 2015 race with what we will write this year. For the 2016 race, organizers have recruited two men who have previously run sub 2:05 for a marathon - contrast that to 2015 when the race brought together five men who had run sub-2:05 for a marathon...
The outright favorite will be the defending champion Stanley Biwott. Besides his success at New York, Biwott has the fastest personal best in the field (2:03:51) and that personal best was recent, set earlier in 2016 as Biwott finished runner-up at the London Marathon. Lelisa Desisa is the man in the field with the second fastest personal best (2:04:45). Desisa is the two-time Boston Marathon champion (2013/2015), was runner-up in Boston earlier in 2016 and was third at the 2015 New York City Marathon. Race organizers assign bib numbers in order of seeding and for 2016 bib 2 has been given to Ghirmay Ghebreslassie, a 20 year-old Eritrean runner. Despite being only 20, Ghebreslassie has run quite a few marathons and has shown good promise, including finishing in fourth place at the 2016 London Marathon and fourth place at the 2016 Olympics. We expect one of these three to win, with the odds favoring Biwott.
Also in the field and vying for a podium position will be Lucas Rotich who beat Ghebreslassie to win the 2015 Hamburg Marathon; and Japanese runner Hiroyuki Yamamoto.
With a smaller than typical professional field, the New York City Marathon has gone further to attract American athletes. In addition to the open prize money (which goes ten deep), the top Americans will receive $25K/$15K/$10K/$5K/$3K for the top five American finishers respectively. With that incentive, we will expect to see a race within the race and expect to see Dathan Ritzenhein, Matt Llano, Craig Leon, Tyler Pennell and Shadrack Biwott vying for the top few American spots.
| Male Elite Athletes |
| Athlete | Country | Bib | Personal Best | NYC |
| Stanley Biwott (30) | KEN | 1 | 2:03:51, London, 2016 | History |
| Ghirmay Ghebreslassie (20) | ERI | 2 | 2:07:46, London, 2016 | History |
| Lelisa Desisa (26) | ETH | 3 | 2:04:45, Dubai, 2013 | History |
| Dathan Ritzenhein (33) | USA | 4 | 2:07:47, Chicago, 2012 | History |
| Lucas Rotich (26) | KEN | 5 | 2:07:17, Hamburg, 2015 | History |
| Moses Kipsiro (30) | UGA | 6 | 2:15:48, Hamburg, 2016 | History |
| Ryan Vail (30) | USA | 7 | 2:10:57, London, 2014 | History |
| Craig Leon (32) | USA | 8 | 2:13:52, Chicago, 2013 | History |
| Birhanu Dare Kemal (30) | ETH | 9 | 2:15:40, New York City, 2015 | History |
| Christo Landry (30) | USA | 10 | 2:14:30, Chicago, 2014 | History |
| Hiroyuki Yamamoto (30) | JPN | 11 | 2:11:48, Beppu-Oita, 2015 | History |
| Tyler Pennel (28) | USA | 12 | 2:13:32, Minneapolis-St. Paul, 2014 | History |
| Diriba Degefa Yigezu (28) | ETH | 13 | 2:19:21, New York City, 2015 | History |
| Shadrack Biwott (31) | USA | 14 | 2:12:55, Frankfurt, 2014 | History |
| Matt Llano (28) | USA | 15 | 2:12:28, Berlin, 2015 | History |
| Abdi Abdirahman (39) | USA | 16 | 2:08:56, Chicago, 2006 | History |
| Tim Ritchie (29) | USA | 17 | 2:14:50, Minneapolis-St. Paul, 2013 | History |
| Patrick Smyth (30) | USA | 18 | 2:15:00, 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Men's Marathon, 2012 | History |
| Jonathan Grey (28) | USA | 19 | 2:24:09, 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Men's Marathon, 2016 | History |
| Ben Payne (35) | USA | 20 | 2:21:01, Boston, 2011 | History |
| Rob Watson (33) | CAN | 21 | 2:13:29, Toronto Waterfront, 2013 | History |
| Tyler McCandless (30) | USA | 22 | 2:15:26, Minneapolis-St. Paul, 2014 | History |
| Jesper Faurschou (33) | DEN | 23 | 2:16:15, London, 2011 | History |
| John Dewitt () | USA | 24 | 2:17:38 | History |
| Brendan Martin (27) | USA | 25 | 2:15:30, Duluth, 2015 | History |
| Giovanni Gualdi (36) | ITA | 26 | 2:13:39 | History |
| Mariano Mastromarino (34) | ARG | 28 | 2:17:45, Pan American Games Marathon - Men's, 2015 | History |
| Harbert Okuti (31) | UGA | 29 | 2:17:30, Sacramento, 2014 | History |
| Zachary Ornelas (25) | USA | 30 | 2:20:11, Detroit International Marathon, 2013 | History |
| Matt Hensley (28) | USA | 31 | 2:19:51, Boston, 2014 | History |
| Jerry Faulkner (35) | USA | 32 | 2:21:53, Hartford, 2015 | History |
| Michael Cassidy (31) | USA | 33 | 2:18:52, Sacramento, 2011 | History |
| Bernard De Matteis (30) | ITA | 34 | Debut | History |
| Martin De Matteis (30) | ITA | 35 | 2:18:20 | History |
| Michael Wardian (42) | USA | 42 | 2:17:49, Duluth, 2011 | History |
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