Lisa Dobriskey
Great Britain
Age: 24
Dobriskey won the 2006 Commonwealth Games 1500-meter title. Last month in Beijing, she placed fourth in the Olympic 1500-meter final; she also set her mile PR this year. In 2007, she suffered a femoral stress fracture, and though she recovered to make the British team for the IAAF World Championships, she lost a shoe while running the 1500 semifinal. Dobriskey is coached by George Gandy (who worked with Sebastian Coe) and Stella Bandu.

Erin Donohue
USA
Age: 25
Donohue was the fastest female American miler (4:27.35) in 2007. She was the fastest high school miler in the country (4:42) in 2001, and she was a national-class javelin thrower in high school and college. She placed third in the 1500 meters at the AT&T USA Outdoor Championships, which qualified her for the IAAF World Championships. This year she made her first Olympic team and ran the 1500 meters in Beijing. Donohue trains with Olympic medalist Shalane Flanagan and fellow Fifth Avenue Mile entrant
Shannon Rowbury.

Lindsey Gallo
United States
Age: 26
After a stellar collegiate career at the University of Michigan, Gallo finished sixth in the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials 1500 meters. In 2005, she placed fifth in the 1500 meters at the
USA Outdoor Championships; won the NCAA Mideast Regional 1500 meters and the Big Ten Indoor Mile; and won the 1500, 3000, and 5000 meters at the Big Ten Championships. She ran a mile PR of 4:28.90 this month.

Sara Hall
United States
Age: 25
The Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile 2006 champion (and third in 2007), Hall was the first high school athlete in California history to win four state cross country championships, and was a four-time NCAA Championships runner-up for Stanford University. Hall placed second in the mile at the 2007 New Balance Games, fourth in the mile at the 2007 RBK Boston Indoor Games, second in the 3000 meters at the Millrose Games (9:01.22), and second in the 2008 Millrose Games mile.

Sarah Jamieson
Australia
Age: 33
A three-time Olympian, Jamieson is the Australian 1500-meter record-holder and four-time national champion, and she was the 2006 Commonwealth Games 1500-meter silver medalist. She was ranked seventh in the world in the 1500 meters in 2007. Born and raised in Perth, Jamieson she set a national indoor mile record with her win at the Boston Indoor Games in 2007. Jamieson returns to New York for the first time since her win at the RBK Grand Prix 1500 meters in May.

Rose Kosgei
Kenya
Age: 27
Kosgei has excelled at distances from the mile (4:37, 2008) to the half-marathon (1:12:42, 2007). She had a string of wins this year in the Trolley Run 4-Mile, the Race for Literacy 8K, and the Medtronic TC Mile, and she took second at the prestigious Carlsbad 5000 and the ING Bay to Breakers 12K in San Francisco. She served as the pacemaker for Shalane Flanagan’s American-record 10,000 meters at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational in May.

Amy Mortimer
United States
Age: 27
Since graduating from Kansas State University, where she was a 12-time All-American, Mortimer has become successful professional distance runner; she finished fifth in the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials 1500 meters. Although primarily a track runner,
Mortimer was part of the bronze-medal-winning U.S. team at the 2005 IAAF World Cross Country Championships. She ran her mile PR of 4:32.90 this year in Falmouth, MA.

Marina Muncan
Serbia
Age: 25
Muncan holds the Serbian record in the 1500 meters, set in 2007. She finished sixth at last year’s Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile and eighth in 2006. A graduate of Villanova University, she still trains with the school’s head coach, three-time world indoor 1500-meter champion Marcus O’Sullivan, and lives in Philadelphia.

Shannon Rowbury
USA
Age: 24
Rowbury’s 2008 has been highlighted by her win at the U.S. Olympic Trials 1500 meters, her seventh-place finish in the final at the Beijing Olympic Games, and a personal-best time of 4:20.34 in the mile in Rieti, Italy, which made her the second-fastest U.S. female miler of all time behind Mary Decker Slaney. She came tantalizingly close to breaking
4:00 for 1500 meters with a 4:00.33 in Paris. A Duke University graduate, Rowbury was the 2007 NCAA indoor mile champion. She trains with fellow Olympians Shalane Flanagan and Erin Donohue under coach John Cook