Invited Athletes

Men

Worku Beyi
Ethiopia
Age: 21

The easygoing Beyi, a resident of the Bronx, is one of the dominant racers on the New York City and Northeast running scenes. A training partner of fellow NYC Half entrant Demesse Tefera, Beyi won the 2008 New York Colon Cancer Challenge 4-Mile and the WABC Father’s Day Fight Against Prostate Cancer 5M. He set his half-marathon PR of 1:03:39 at the 2007 NYC Half, where he finished eighth. Beyi’s wife, Bizunesh Deba, is also a top local road racer.

Fasil Bizuneh
United States
Age: 28

In the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Track & Field 10,000 meters on July 4, Bizuneh finished 15th in 28:43.11. He placed 13th at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Men’s Marathon in Central Park last November. In 1999, he was the top American finisher at the 1999 World Junior Cross Country Championships. Bizuneh, who lives in Flagstaff, AZ, was born in Germany to African parents who fled political chaos in Ethiopia. He became a U.S. citizen in 1987.

Fernando Cabada
United States
Age: 26

Cabada, a resident of Boulder, CO, holds the American record for 25K (1:14:21), and he has run a 1:02 half-marathon and a 2:12 marathon. He finished a disappointing 50th in 2:35 at the IAAF World Championships Marathon last year in Osaka, Japan, in extreme heat and humidity. In the Garry Bjorklund Half-Marathon in Duluth, MN, on June 21, he shared the lead with eventual winner Matthew Chesang until the last mile and finished second in 1:05:07.

Adam Goucher
United States
Age: 33

Goucher ran 1:03:17 for sixth place at the 2007 BUPA Great North Run in England. A 2000 Olympian at 5000 meters, he finished seventh at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Track & Field 10,000 meters on July 4. He was the 1998 NCAA cross country champion, and he won both the 4K and 12K at the 2000 USA Cross Country Championships; he regained the 4K title in 2006 at New York’s Van Cortlandt Park, and he went on to finish sixth at that year’s IAAF World Cross Country Championships. Goucher lives in Portland, OR, and is married to 2008 U.S. Olympian Kara Goucher.

Luke Humphrey
United States
Age: 27

Humphrey, a member of the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project team in Michigan, placed 12th in 29:44 at the Healthy Kidney 10K in Central Park on May 17. Last November, he finished a respectable 43rd at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Men’s Marathon, also in Central Park, despite having been hobbled by an injury leading up to the race. A 2004 graduate of Central Michigan University, he has a half-marathon PR of 1:04:05.

Richard Kiplagat
Kenya
Age: 27

A resident of New Rochelle, Kiplagat hails from Marakwet, Kenya, where he attended the same high school as Olympic medalists Moses Kiptanui and Reuben Kosgei. He was a 10-time All American at Iona College and finished second at the 2005 NCAA Cross Country Championships. Kiplagat ran his first marathon in London this year and finished 17th in 2:17:24 after serving as a pacemaker. He was third at the Healthy Kidney 10K in May. In 2007, he won the Cooper River Bridge Run 10K in South Carolina. He has a half-marathon PR of 1:03:15.

William Kipsang
Kenya
Age: 31

Even though Kipsang ran a course-record 2:05:49 at the Fortis Rotterdam Marathon in April, he will not represent his country at the Beijing Olympics, due to the depth of Kenyan running talent. His fitness will, however, be on view at the NYC Half, where he’ll take on a field that includes countrymen Patrick Makau, James Kwambai, and Felix Limo. Kipsang is a two-time top-10 finisher at the ING New York City Marathon, and he has a half-marathon PR of 1:00:27.

Felix Limo
Kenya
Age: 27

Limo is one of the all-time great marathon competitors. He has won three of the five World Marathon Majors events, Berlin (2004), Chicago (2005), and London (2006). He began his career as a track runner and achieved world-class times of 7:40 for 3000 meters and 27:04 for 10,000 meters before turning to road racing in 2003. Since then, he has become a master of peaking for major events; watch for him to rise to the occasion again in his first New York City appearance.

Patrick Makau
Kenya
Age: 23

Makau’s recent performances in half-marathons suggest that he will be very hard to beat. He ran 58:56 to win the Vattenfall Berlin Half-Marathon last year, which made him the third-fastest man in history over that distance, only one second away from Haile Gebrselassie’s best. He has won an amazing four major half-marathons in 2008 already, and his last visit to New York City resulted in a victory at the Healthy Kidney 10K.

Hendrick Ramaala
South Africa
Age: 36

Ramaala won the ING New York City Marathon 2004, finished third at the 2005 Flora London Marathon, and then lost one of the most memorable duels in the sport’s history at the ING New York City Marathon 2005, finishing less than one second behind winner Paul Tergat. He returned to the race in 2007 and completed his medal collection by adding a bronze. A three-time Olympian, Ramaala holds the South African record for the half-marathon (59:20). He does nearly all of his training on a 3.5K loop near the Johannesburg Zoo.

Dathan Ritzenhein
United States
Age: 25

Ritzenhein was the bronze medalist at the 2001 IAAF Junior World Cross Country Championships, and he ran 13:44.70 for 5000 meters in high school, just off the American scholastic record. At the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Men’s Marathon last November, he placed a strong second to make the U.S. team for Beijing. Ritzenhein’s winning time of 28:08 at the 2007 Healthy Kidney 10K broke Paul Koech’s 10-year-old Central Park record of 28:10. He won the 2008 USA Cross Country Championships and finished eighth in the U.S Olympic Team Trials – Track & Field 10,000 meters on July 4. He set his half-marathon PR of 1:01:25 in 2006.

Demesse Tefera
Ethiopia
Age: 25

Tefera has been a strong presence in the NYC Half-Marathon Presented by NIKE, finishing fifth in 2006 (1:03:17) and seventh last year (1:03:36). A Bronx resident and the 2006 and 2007 NYRR Fred Lebow Runner of the Year, the Ethiopian native has established himself as one of the dominant racers across the Northeast. Tefera was previously part of the corporate racing-team system in Japan, where he ran a personal best of 13:45 for 5K.

Tadesse Tola
Ethiopia
Age: 20

Just 20 years old, Tola has world-class road, track, and cross country racing credentials. He placed seventh at the 2007 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa, Kenya, under brutally hot conditions, then won the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10-Mile several weeks later, dethroning three-time champ John Korir. This year he ran a speedy 27:15 10,000 meters (close to his PR of 27:04.89) to place fifth at the Nike Prefontaine Classic.