09/11/2008 By David Monti (c) 2008 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved - used with permission
Organizers
of the Bank of America Chicago Marathon will have the sparkle of gold
at their race on Sunday, October 12, when Romania's Constantina Dita
steps to the starting line. The newly crowned Olympic Games gold
medalist will have just 56 days to recover from her breakaway win in
Beijing, then rally back to perform at her best in Chicago. It will be
her fifth appearance in the Windy City, a race she won in 2004 and
finished second one year later in a personal best 2:21:30.
"I am
delighted to be returning to Chicago," said Dita through a press
release. "I have always felt great running there and have been
fortunate to have some of the best races of my life there. It will
also be nice to return because I understand Chicago is bidding for the
2016 Olympic Games and I think it would be a wonderful place to have
them."
In Beijing Dita pulled away from the field just before
the halfway point, and romped to a solo victory in 2:26:44, 22 seconds
ahead of silver medalist Catherine Ndereba of Kenya. She became the
oldest Olympic Games marathon champion at 38.
In Chicago, Dita's
key rivals will be Ethiopians Bezunesh Bekele (2:23:09) and Worknesh
Tola (2:25:37) and Russians Lidiya Grigoryeva (2:25:10) and Alevtina
Biktimirova (2:25:12).
On the men's side, athletes from Kenya
are set to dominate the race (Kenyans have won the last five
editions). The fastest men in the field are William Kipsang and
Emmanuel Mutai who both set personal best times last April. Kipsang
ran a course record 2:05:49 at Rotterdam, while Mutai was fourth at
London in 2:06:15.
"The Bank of America Chicago Marathon has a
reputation for producing historic efforts and breathtaking finishes and
the quality of this year's elite field is an extension of that
tradition," said executive race director Carey Pinkowski of Chicago
Event Management, now in his 19th year overseeing the event. "This
year's men's field features four men who have run under 2:07:00, one
who has run under 2:06:00 and champions from some of the great
marathons of the world which should produce another great day of
marathon running on Oct. 12."
Neither of the 2007 Bank of
America Chicago Marathon champions, Patrick Ivuti of Kenya and Berhane
Adere, were named for this year's race. They both earned their
victories in unusually hot conditions last year which were so severe
that organizers had to shut down the race after about four hours of
running.
The complete elite fields are below with personal best times:
MEN - Moses Arusei KEN 2:06:50 Christopher Cheboiboch KEN 2:08:17 Timothy Cherigat KEN 2:09:34 James Getanda KEN 2:11:50 Salim Kipsang KEN 2:07:29 William Kipsang KEN 2:05:49 Richard Limo KEN 2:06:45 Emmanuel Mutai KEN 2:06:15
WOMEN - Bezunesh Bekele ETH 2:23:09 Alevtina Biktimirova RUS 2:25:12 Colleen De Reuck (40+) USA 2:26:35 Zoila Gomez USA 2:33:53 Lidiya Grigoryeva RUS 2:25:10 Kate O'Neill USA 2:36:15 Adriana Pirtea ROU 2:28:52 Kiyoko Shimahara JPN 2:26:14 Worknesh Tola ETH 2:25:37 Constantina Dita ROU 2:21:30
