Posted: October 20, 2005

Athletics: Ethiopian Stars To Compete In New York

From David Monti

© 2005 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

The New York Road Runners announced yesterday three top Ethiopian stars, including the legendary two-time Olympic gold medalist, Derartu Tulu, would be running the ING New York City Marathon on Nov. 6. Tulu will be joined by multiple Olympic medalist, Gete Wami, and the reigning BAA Boston Marathon champion, Hailu Negussie.

"Individually they are all stars, but together they make a galaxy of greats," said race director Mary Wittenberg who is also the president and CEO of the Road Runners. "This is as good as it gets."

Tulu, 33, set an unexpected marathon personal best time at the IAAF World Championships marathon last August (2:23:30). She finished only 11 seconds behind Romania Constantina-Tomescu Dita, and some observers said that Tulu might have caught her had the race been a little bit longer. In any event, Tulu already has three Olympic medals to her credit, including two golds in the 10,000m. The first, earned in 1992, was the first-ever Olympic medal earned by a black African woman.

Wami, 30, won Olympic medals at 5000 meters (bronze, 2000) and 10,000 meters (bronze, 1996; silver, 2000) and is the Ethiopian marathon record holder (2:22:19, Amsterdam 2002). She is also one of the most decorated athletes in the history of the IAAF World Cross Country Championships with seven individual medals, including three golds.

An Ethiopian women has never won the ING New York City Marathon.

Negussie, 27, trimuphed at this year's edition of the BAA Boston Marathon in warm conditions, becoming the first Ethiopian man to win Boston since Abebe Mekonnen in 1989. Only one Ethiopian man has won New York: course record holder Tesfaye Jifar who won in 2001. He will also be running in New York this year, making a comback after a stomach ulcer thwarted his training and racing beginning in 2002.

New York Road Runners officials also announced that reigning two-time men's world marathon champion Jaouad Gharib of Morocco has withdrawn, citing difficulty in recovering completely after winning his second world marathon crown in Helsinki in August.

In an e-mail to race officials, Gharib's manager, Gianni Demadonna, wrote, "The training is not going how he and his coach would like, and they were forced to take the decision to cancel his participation. He is very sad because he was very confident after the World Championships but now that the marathon is approaching he feels day after day that he cannot be ready, and as a serious professional runner he doesn’t want to spoil his name with a bad race."

The men's race remains very strong, however, with world record holder Paul Tergat, reigning ING New York City Marathon champion Hendrick Ramaala, reigning Flora London Marathon champion Martin Lel, and Olympic silver medalist Meb Keflezighi all in the hunt for the 2005 title.