Philly Half Live on Competitor with Hall and... Meseret Defar!

On Sunday morning, September 19, tune into Competitor.com at 7:55 EST to watch top American marathoner Ryan Hall as he defends his ING Rock ‘n’ Roll Philadelphia title against a strong international field, which includes the likes of Morocco’s Abderrahim Goumri, a 2:05:30 marathoner, and sub-27-minute 10K runner Gebre Gebremariam of Ethiopia, who has been tearing up the U.S. road racing scene this summer. Australian Shawn Forrest, sixth in his professional road racing debt earlier thus summer at the Beach To Beacon 10K, University of Oregon graduate Shadrack Biwott of Kenya, former NCAA champion and Irish Olympian Alistair Cragg, Oregon Track Club teammates Simon Bairu and Tim Nelson, along with 2009 U.S. 20K champion Brett Gotcher, will all come together ten days from now make up the fastest men’s elite field ever assembled for this race.

Ethiopia’s four-time world indoor 3000 metre athletics champion Meseret Defar has made a surprise decision to make her debut over the half marathon.

The 26-year old, who earlier this month won the 3000 metre title at the IAAF Continental Cup in Split, Croatia, will run more than twice as long as her previous longest race, the world’s best 10km in Puerto three and half years ago where she finished second behind Kenyan-born Dutch woman Lornah Kiplagat.

An established track runner with one world and one Olympic 5000m and the most successful Ethiopian indoor athlete with four back-to-back 3000m titles, Defar has run the 10,000m on the track three times, clocking a personal best of 29:59.20 in Birmingham last year, the fifth fastest time in the history of the event.

It will be the first time when Defar runs the half marathon race in the US and her result is expected to give her the green light for her future participation in the marathon.
Joining Defar in Philadelphia will be compatriots Derartu Tulu and Werknesh Kidane, who both are experienced over the event with personal bests of 1:07:03 and 1:08:09 respectively.