2007 Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile Bios

Juan Luis Barrios Mexico Age: 24 Barrios has had an outstanding 2007 season, establishing personal bests at 1500 meters, one mile, two miles, and 5000 meters, and racing to silver medals in the 1500 and 5000 at the Pan American Games in Brazil. At the Mt. SAC Relays in California this past April, Barrios pulled off an impressive double, winning the mile in a personal best 3:58.18 and scoring another PR with his win in the 5000, defeating U.S. Olympian Anthony Famiglietti, Fifth Avenue Mile defending champion Kevin Sullivan, Pan American Games winner Ed Moran, NCAA cross country champion Josh Rohatinsky, and two-time Olympian Alan Culpepper in the process.



Abiyot Endale Ethiopia Age: 21 New York local running sensation Abiyot Endale competes for the Westchester Track Club. An Ethiopian native, he immigrated to New York in early 2006. A frequent top-five finisher at NYRR races, he won the 2007 NYRR Team Championships, a race widely regarded as the most competitive non-prize money race in America, and the Thomas G. Labrecque Classic in Washington, DC, earlier this month. He also won the 2006 NYRR Road Mile Championships.



Chris Lukezic United States Age: 23 Georgetown University standout Chris Lukezic placed fourth at the 2007 USA Outdoor Championships. He placed sixth in the mile at both the Boston Indoor Games (4:00.5) in January and the Reebok Grand Prix (3:57.02) in May, and he finished third in the mile (4:01.48) at the Millrose Games in February. A two-time U.S. junior champion and a semi-finalist at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki (3:35.22), Lukezic reached the final at last year’s World Indoor Championships in Moscow, finishing seventh, and later that summer lowered his career best to 3:33.28 at the Golden Gala in Rome. Lukezic’s 3:35.22 performance moved him into second place in the Georgetown record books for all-time outdoor performances. A five-time All-American, Lukezic trains alongside world-class miler Alan Webb with the DC Elite team, and he has dreams of opening a coffee shop and bakery when he retires from running.



Rob Myers United States Age: 27 Ohio State University graduate (2004) Rob Myers has ranked among the best American milers since winning the USA Indoor 1500-meter championship in March 2004, a performance that gained him entry to that winter’s World Indoor Championships in Budapest. That July, Myers, the OSU record holder in both the indoor mile (3:58.64) and the 1000 meters (2:23.65), finished third at the Olympic Trials in the 1500 (3:39.96), just shy of the Olympic standard. In 2005, he placed third at the USA Outdoor Championships and achieved a new 1500-meter personal best of 3:34.89. A two-time Ohio state champion at Fairfield Union High School, he still holds the Division II state record for the 800 meters (1:52.73, set in 1999). Myers lives with his wife in Ohio, where he is a volunteer coach at his alma mater.



Jon Rankin United States Age: 25 Former UCLA star John Rankin first broke 4:00 for the mile in 2005 at the Rafer Johnson Invitational. He was the third Bruin of all time to break the four-minute barrier, and the first to do so since 1980. Rankin is coached by 1984 Olympic 800-meter gold medalist Joaquim Cruz. He missed much of the 2006 season after he broke a bone in his foot in his 800-meter semi final at the AT&T USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships last June. Another injury sustained before this year’s USA Outdoor Championships hurt his performance there, but he has since rounded into form nicely, establishing a 3:54.24 personal best in the mile in Stretford, England, on August 11.



Steve Slattery United States Age: 27 Slattery is a native of Flanders, New Jersey, about an hour’s drive from the Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile course. He was a two-time high school state champion and two-time Foot Locker All-American in cross country. A 2002 graduate of the University of Colorado, he specializes in the steeplechase on the track and was the runner-up at the 2002 NCAA Outdoor Championships in that event. Slattery won the USA Outdoor Championships in the steeple in 2003 after a runner-up finish the previous year, and he was ranked #3 in the country in the steeple in 2006 by Track & Field News. Slattery is coached by Brad Hudson, and he and his wife, Sara—also a CU grad and a professional runner—reside in the running mecca of Boulder, CO. Slattery has a black belt in karate.



Kevin Sullivan Defending Champion Canada Age: 33 Arguably Canada’s most successful middle-distance runner ever, Kevin Sullivan’s specialty is the 1500 meters. His 3:31.71 remains the Canadian record for 1500 meters, a title he achieved in Rome just weeks before competing in the Sydney Olympics in 2000 (where he finished fifth). He also holds the Canadian records for the mile (3:50.26) and the indoor 3000 meters (7:43.89). Sullivan placed fifth in the 1500 meters in 3:34.16 at the Meeting Gaz de France in Paris Saint-Denis in July, and he placed fourth in the 1500 meters in 3:37.40 at the London IAAF Super Grand Prix in August. He is married to former Canadian national team 3000-meter steeplechaser Karen Harvey, and returns to Fifth Avenue to defend his 2006 title.



Patrick Tarpy United States Age: 25 A native of Yarmouth, Maine, Tarpy is a 2005 graduate of Brown University, where he was coached by John Gregorek and was part of the team that won the school’s first Ivy League Heptagonal Championship in cross country, in 2003. He won the 2005 Outdoor Heptagonal Championships 10,000 meters. Now working toward a graduate degree at Rhode Island’s Providence College while he pursues his running career, Tarpy was a 2007 Roads Scholar recipient, awarded by the Road Runners Club of America. In his most recent NYC competitive outing, he placed 10th at the 2007 USA 8K Championships in March, and he was fourth at the USA 5K Championships, held in Providence on September 16.



Alan Webb United States Age: 24 On July 21, 2007, Webb broke the American record in the mile, clocking 3:46.91 at the Atletiek Vlaanderenmeet in Brasschaat, Belgium. The mark broke the record of 3:47.69 set by National Track & Field Hall of Famer Steve Scott in 1982 and makes Webb the eighth-fastest man in history. He broke another of Scott’s mile records with his 3:51.71 at the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa, on April 28, and yet another on June 24 in Indianapolis when he ran 3:34.82 in the 1500 meters at the AT&T USA Outdoor Championships. The biggest win of Webb’s career came July 6 in Paris, when he ran a personal-best 1500-meter time of 3:30.54, the fastest time in the world in 2007. Webb is coached by his high school mentor, Scott Raczko. His training group, DC Elite, includes fellow Fifth Avenue Mile competitor Chris Lukezic. Webb attends George Mason University and enjoys playing the guitar in his spare time.