Craig Mottram and Dathan Ritzenhein to Face Off in Healthy Kidney 10K

Mottram looking for three-peat in Central Park

Central Park will be the stage for a match-up between two of the best young runners in the world as Olympians Craig Mottram of Australia and American Dathan Ritzenhein headline a strong professional field set to compete at the Healthy Kidney 10K on Saturday, May 19.

“Buster” Mottram, 26, has all but owned Central Park the past few years with back-to-back victories in the first two editions of the Healthy Kidney 10K. However, the 24-year-old “Ritz” is healthy and primed to dethrone the “King of the Kidney,” following an injury in his left foot that forced him out of the USA Men’s 8K Championships in March.

The stakes are considerable as race sponsor Embassy of the United Arab Emirates has put up a prize-money purse of $20,000, including $7,500 for the champion, and a $20,000 bonus for breaking the Central Park 10K record of 28 minutes, 10 seconds, set by Paul Koech of Kenya in 1997.

“Buster and Dathan always add sparks to the bright lights of New York City,” said Mary Wittenberg, President and CEO of NYRR. “Let the big-time racing begin. My bet is a 10-year record is going down.”

“I am very happy to be coming back to New York for the Healthy Kidney 10K,” said Ritzenhein, who attended the University of Colorado and still lives in Boulder, CO. “Racing Craig adds something extra to the event for me. It won’t be an easy race at all, and I think we will all see one heck of race. Hopefully, I’ll be the one with my nose in front at the finish line.”

Mottram holds a 2-0 head-to-head advantage over his younger rival. In their last match-up two years ago at California’s Carlsbad 5000, Mottram was second and Ritzenhein seventh.

“Once again I’m really looking forward to the Healthy Kidney 10K, especially knowing Dathan is in the field,” said Mottram. “I seem to be making a habit of coming in to New York to try and take on the best American runners. Dathan will offer a great challenge, so I know I’ll have to be in very good form to keep up with him and have a chance of winning again in New York.”

A native of Rockford, MI, Ritzenhein was the 2003 NCAA Cross Country champion. A 2004 Olympian at the 10,000-meter distance, he turned pro after the Olympic Games and has since earned two national titles (2005) and was the champion at the 2005 Belfast Reebok XC Challenge. He finished 11th in 2:14:01 at the ING New York City Marathon 2006. A four-time member of Team USA at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, Ritzenhein was third at this year’s USA Cross Country Championships.  

For Ritz, the Healthy Kidney 10K represents one more run through Central Park on the road to Beijing. Ritzenhein is expected to be one of the leading contenders this fall at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Men’s Marathon, which will be run in Central Park as well, on Saturday, November 3.

A national-champion triathlete as a teenager in Melbourne, Mottram has found international success as a one-sport man, earning bronze at the 2005 IAAF World Championships 5000 meters and silver at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in the same distance. He kicked off the 2007 season with a win in the Reebok Boston Indoor Games 3000 meters in Australian-record time, his seventh national mark, and electrified the Madison Square Garden crowd at the Millrose Games when he finished second in the Wanamaker Mile in a thrilling duel with Bernard Lagat.  

The race is sponsored by the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates to benefit the National Kidney Foundation, Inc., in appreciation of American medical excellence in the kidney transplant field. The late UAE president Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al-Nahyan benefited from American expertise, knowledge, and research when he received a kidney transplant in 2000.

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