Defending champ Keitany leads women's New York City Marathon field
Mary Keitany is set to defend her New York City Marathon title on November 1.
The two-time London Marathon winner, who secured a clear victory at the recent Morrisons Great North Run, has been announced as part of an elite women's field also including the likes of 2015 London Marathon winner Tigist Tufa, world marathon silver medallist Helah Kiprop, 2015 Boston Marathon champion Caroline Rotich and Olympic marathon silver medallist Priscah Jeptoo.
Olympic 10,000m silver medalist Sally Kipyego is also in action as she makes her marathon debut, while US runner Laura Thweatt also races over 26.2 miles for the first time.
"We are excited to welcome an extremely talented women’s field of marathon veterans, including our defending champion Mary Keitany, and newcomers to the marathon distance, including Sally Kipyego and Laura Thweatt, to the 2015 TCS New York City Marathon,” said race director Peter Ciaccia.
“Along with Helah Kiprop, Caroline Rotich and Tigist Tufa, this star-powered field will lead the way for a community of 50,000 runners along an amazing journey through the five boroughs of New York City.”
Keitany commented: “I am happy and proud to go back to New York to defend my title.
“To be the defending champion is a great honour, but also a big responsibility for me. Therefore, I have been doing my own preparation since June to ensure that I will reach the best shape possible to perform even better than last year in order to make my supporters happy, who will be watching me run in the streets of New York.”
Other announced athletes include Aselefech Mergia, Buzunesh Deba, Sara Moreira, Jelena Prokopcuka, Christelle Daunay and Ana Dulce Felix.
The men's defending champion also returns to race this year's event, with Wilson Kipsang having been named as part of the 2015 field earlier this week along with athletes such as Lelisa Desisa, Geoffrey Kamworor, Gebre Gebremariam and Meb Keflezighi. You can read about the men's elite field here.
