This will be an anxious week for ING New York City Marathon professional athletes’ consultant David Monti after the worst depletion of the women’s field in the event’s history. Monti is desperately hoping there will be no late withdrawals after five elite signings -- Dire Tune, Lornah Kiplagat, Jelena Prokopcuka, Mara Yamauchi and Tatyana Petrova -- dropped out of the race.Tune (Ethiopia) suffered a family tragedy while Prokopcuka (Latvia) withdrew after becoming pregnant. Kiplagat (The Netherlands), Yamauchi (Great Britain) and Petrova (Russia) are all injured. But the World record holder and three-time New York winner, Paula Radcliffe (Great Britain), remains in the field, as do Boston Marathon champion Salina Kosgei (Kenya) and Yuri Kano (Japan), who says she is aiming to become her country’s first winner in New York.
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