Watch Chicago marathon live on Universal Sports (Oct 11, 8:00 AM ET).
Chicago Marathon is just a few days away and the excitement is already building up towards what could be a great race waiting to unfold. Sammy Wanjiru has already mentioned that he will be attacking Haile Gebrselassie’s World Record time of 2:03:59 set in Berlin 2008.
Remember the great run Wanjiru put up under hot and humid conditions at the Beijing Olympics in winning in 2:06:32, well, if the conditions on the day are just right, this might as well happen. This is incidentally the first time that Wanjiru would be running in the US. Wanjiru holds the world record for the half marathon in 58:33 from 2007. For the past 7 years, he has been living and training in Japan.
The Science of Sport guys mentioned that there have been talks of setting pacemakers to run the half marathon mark in 61:40, but they reckon that this might be just too fast and probably something in the range of 61:55 would be better suited for the attempt. We will catch the excitement live on Universal Sports online to find out (Oct 11, 8:00 AM ET).
Men’s marathon: Contenders
- Samuel Wanjiru, Kenya (PB 2:05:10) - 2008 Olympic Champion and 2009 London Marathon winner
- Abderrahim Goumri, Morocco (PB 2:05:30) – two time Paris runner-up
- Vincent Kipruto, Kenya (PB 2:05:47) – winner Paris marathon 2009
- Tadese Tola, Ethiopia (fearless half-marathon runner, making his marathon debut!)
Women’s marathon: Contenders
- Irini Mikitenko of Germany (PB 2:19:19) – London 2009 winner has won three- straight marathons.
- Deena Kastor, United States (PB 2:19:36) – 2005 Chicago winner, injury prone season
- Lidiya Grigoryeva, Russia (PB 2:25:10) – defending champion
- Teyba Erkesso, Ethiopia (PB 2:24:18) – Houston marathon 2009 winner in 2:24:18
- Liliya Shobukova, Russia (PB 2:24:24)
The Chicago Marathon features a fast course that has produced four previous world records and more than 15 American records. It has been reported that the weather on the race day is expected to be good. The forecast is a low of 37 and a high of 49 with chances of shower as well. 45000 runners are expected to run the 2009 Bank of America Chicago Marathon, including 6,000 from outside the US.
