Field is expected to exceed 25,000
More than 25,000 runners are expected to compete today in the 22nd annual Los Angeles Marathon, but last year’s top finishers will not be among them.
After setting course records, 2006 men’s race winner Benson Cherono and women’s race winner Lidiya Grigoryeva declined invitations to return to the event.
Their absence leaves a diminished field of 23 elite-level runners -- there were 40 men and 12 women in the elite field last year -- to compete in the Banco Popular Challenge, in which $100,000 will be awarded to the first runner, male or female, who crosses the finish line.
The women will be given a head start of 19 minutes 51 seconds, a differential based on an average of top competitors’ times that the men will have to make up if they are to win the challenge. Last year’s elite women were faster and sent off with a head start of 16:46.
The men’s and women’s race winners each will also receive a $20,000 purse -- down from $35,000 last year -- and a new car. Second-place finishers in each division will receive $12,000, with third- and fourth-place finishers earning $7,500 and $5,000, respectively. Wheelchair athletes will compete for a $3,000 first prize.
Among the top runners for the men are Kenyans Fred Mogaka and Moses Kororia, who have personal bests of 2:12:03 and 2:12.04, respectively.
Ramila Burangolova leads the women’s field with a best time of 2:27.58.
The race will be run for the first time over a point-to-point course featuring starting and finishing lines in different locations.
Beginning at Ventura and Lankershim boulevards in Universal City and ending at 5th and Flower streets in downtown Los Angeles, the marathon is expected to attract more than a million spectators.
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