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photo: Victah Sailer / PhotoRun Stanley Biwott Will Seek To Defend His New York City Maraton Title

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