Organizers of the fourth RAK Half-Marathon, scheduled for Friday, Feb. 19, in Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates, announced yesterday that they would host eight men who had broken one hour for the half-marathon, and another five who had run under 61 minutes.
Reigning Boston Marathon champion, Deriba Merga of Ethiopia, leads the field with a 59:15 personal best. The 29 year-old has broken the one hour mark six times, and he'll be checking his fitness for his Boston title defense in April.
Two of Merga's training mates, Tilahun Regassa and Lelisa Desisa, are also sub-60:00 men and both are entered in the race. Regassa recently won $300,000 for his victory at the Zayed International Half-Marathon in Abu Dhabi last January, and Desisa was third at that same race. Both men set personal bests in Abu Dhabi of 59:19 and 59:59, respectively.
Geoffrey Mutai (59:30), John Kiprotich (59:23), Stephen Kibiwott (59:44), and Jairus Chanchima (59:44) make up the Kenyan section of the sub-60:00 crew at this race. Fabiano Joseph of Tanzania, the 2005 IAAF World Half-Marathon Championships gold medallist, is the eighth man who has run under the one-hour mark.
The elite athletes manager for the event, Ian Ladbrooke, has added depth to the race with five additional sub-61 men: Kenyans Titus Masai (60:00), Willy Mwangi (60:07), David Kipkorir Mandago (60:23), Patrick Nthiwa (60:23), and Ethiopian Getu Feleke (60:36).
Although not a large race (the 2009 event has 731 finishers), the RAK Half-Marathon has been highly ranked for competitiveness and has produced a slew of fast times. The independent Association of Road Racing Statisticians ranked the race's 2009 men's field as the #2 half-marathon in the world last year, behind only the IAAF World Championships. Since the race was founded in 2007, it has produced three marks under 59 minutes and a dozen marks under 60 minutes. The course record is 58:52 by Kenyan Patrick Makau, set last year. That's the #2 mark of all-time.
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