by Justin Lagat
Senbere Teferi, who holds the women’s only 5K world record at 14:29, has been having a good year, and a win at the B.A.A. half marathon this Sunday will definitely make it much better for her. Teferi ran 30:12 to set her 10K personal best time in June when she won the New York 10K race, then followed that up less than a month later with a third-place finish at the Peachtree 10K Road Race in Atlanta. She would have won the Peachtree race comfortably had she not veered off the course in the final stages of it.
If the weather favours her, and she gets the directions right, she should be one of the main favourites to cut the tape at Franklin Park in Boston on a chilly but sunny Sunday morning.
Viola Chepngeno and Geoffrey Koech will be back to defend their men’s and women’s titles amid loaded fields.
Among the star elites in the women’s field are this year’s Tokyo Marathon champion Rosemary Wanjiru, 2019 B.A.A. 10K winner Fancy Chamutai –who is also the fastest on the list with a 1:04.54, world cross country silver medalist Tsigie Gebreselama, last year’s runner-up Bosena Mulatie, and two-time B.A.A. Half Marathon second place finisher Cynthia Limo.
Of great interest to the local fans will be Keira D’Amato, who holds the American national record with her 1:06:44, a time that she ran in Australia to win the Gold Coast half marathon in July.
The men’s elite race has assembled a deep elite field comprising ten runners with personal best times under 61 minutes. Kenya’s Abel Kipchumba appears to be an outstanding favourite. His personal best time of 58:07 is way faster than the second-fastest competitor, Shadrack Kimining, who has 59:27.
Here is what will make it a little bit tricky to beat Kipchumba on Sunday. Not only is he a fast half marathon runner, but he also has enough endurance to run a marathon in 2:06:49, which he did at the Berlin Marathon last year to finish 5th in one of the World Marathon Majors.
Koech, who is the third fastest on the list with 59:36, is the defending champion and his experience and confidence of having won the race before could help him get another title.
Some of the top American men to watch include Nadir Yusuf (1:03:23), Kevin Koski (1:03:35) and Ryan Cutter (1:03:54).
