Posted: April 12, 2007

Athletics: USATF News & Notes, Volume 8, Number 30

Boston Marathon LIVE on Television The 111th Boston Marathon, scheduled to begin two hours earlier than past years, will reach local, national and international viewers with complete, live coverage on Monday, April 16, 2007. WBZ-TV (CBS affiliate, Channel 4) will provide its exclusive live, local broadcast from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET. WBZ-TV, a partner of the Boston Athletic Association for 27 years, is the only Boston television station providing live wire-to-wire coverage of the 2007 Boston Marathon. For the third year, Versus (formerly known as Outdoor Life Network) will provide complete, live, national coverage from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. ET. A same-day, encore presentation of the Versus telecast will air from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. ET. Eurosport, a Boston Marathon partner, will carry the race in Europe in 130 million homes. Additional B.A.A. partners include SporTV in Brazil, SuperSport throughout Africa, Sky Mexico, i-cable in Hong Kong, Latvian TV, and worldwide highlights on SNTV and Reuters. American Forces Radio and Television will bring the race to U.S. troops overseas, covering 190 countries. WBZ am 1030 will provide live local radio coverage. The Boston Athletic Association, the organizer of the Boston Marathon, will provide text-based web coverage with a leader board and real-time updates on the official Boston Marathon web site: www.bostonmarathon.org. The push rim wheelchair division of the Boston Marathon begins at 9:25 a.m. ET; the Elite Women start at 9:35 a.m. ET; and the Elite Men with the first wave of official entrants will begin at 10:00 a.m. ET. More than 23,800 participants are entered. This year's race marks the first time that the Boston Marathon has not begun at Noon ET. For more information on the 2007 Boston Marathon, visit: www.bostonmarathon.org. Bekele to compete at Prefontaine Classic In his first-ever race outdoors in the United States, Ethiopian superstar Kenenisa Bekele will compete in the 2007 Prefontaine Classic Grand Prix on June 10 at the University of Oregon's historic Hayward Field in Eugene. Bekele will run the 2-Mile, the first he has ever contested outdoors. Still only 24-years-old, Bekele holds world records at 5,000 meters (12:37.35), 10,000 meters (26:17.53), and two distances indoors, at 2,000 and 5,000 meters. Combining great finishing speed with spectacular endurance, Bekele has won gold medals over 10,000m at the 2004 Olympic Games, and at the 2003 and 2005 World Championships. He took the silver medal in the Athens Olympic 5,000m, and has been ranked#1 in the world at 5,000 meters by Track & Field News for the past three years. Of the nine 5 km races he ran last year, Bekele broke 13 minutes in six of them. The 33rd Prefontaine Classic will be televised live on NBC for two hours beginning at 1 p.m. PT on June 10. Tickets for the Prefontaine Classic are on sale at the Casanova Center ticket office in Eugene, or by dialing 1-800-WEBFOOT, or at www.goducks.com. For more information, call 541-687-1989 or visit www.preclassic.com.