NYC Half-Marathon Presented by NIKE

Samia Akbar
United States
Age: 25
Residence: Herndon, Virginia

Although she was an All-American and set eight school records at American University, Akbar reached a new level in 2006. Akbar, who shares a coach with top U.S. miler Alan Webb, established personal bests in at least six different events in 2006, including taking 12th place at the ING New York City Marathon, knocking four minutes off her previous half-marathon best at the Jefferson Hospital Philadelphia Distance Run (1:13:12), and lowering her 10,000-meter best by nearly 90 seconds.

Leteyesus Berhe
Ethiopia
Age: 29
Residence: New York, New York

A native of Ethiopia, Berhe has lived in New York City since 2001 and has been a frequent winner in Central Park events. She has represented Ethiopia in the World Championships for the marathon and the half-marathon. Berhe has a half-marathon PR of 1:16:16, and ran 1:21:05 to place 10th at the 2006 NYC Half-Marathon Presented by NIKE.

Caroline Bierbaum
United States
Age: 23
Residence: New York, New York

Bierbaum will run the first serious half-marathon of her career at the NYC Half-Marathon Presented by NIKE. She set the current Ivy League record at 10,000 meters of 32:44.51 in 2005 while in her senior year at Columbia University and was a perennial NCAA National Championships medalist in cross-country and indoor and outdoor track. A frequent high placer in NYRR events, she is training for the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon, where she will attempt to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Women’s Marathon. Bierbaum is a second-year law student at the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law.

Claudia Camargo
Argentina
Age: 36
Residence: Danbury, Connecticut

There’s hardly a weekend throughout the year that doesn’t see Camargo near the top of the results of a road race somewhere in the country. She had a breakout season in 2006, finishing sixth in the inaugural NYC Half-Marathon Presented by NIKE in 1:13:39, and a 13th-place finish (in a personal best 2:35:04) at the ING New York City Marathon. She is a two-time national champion in her native Argentina and holds the national record for 5K.

Zoila Gómez
United States
Age: 28
Residence: Alamosa, Colorado

Born the 15th of 16 children in Charcas, Mexico, Gómez moved to the United States at age 17. She enrolled at Adams State College in Colorado, where she earned 11 All-America honors and won six NCAA Division II championships; she was selected from a pool of some 30,000 student athletes as the 2004 Division II Athlete of the Year. She acquired U.S. citizenship after graduation, and she placed third in the 2006 USA Marathon Championships and seventh in the 2007 USA Half-Marathon Championships.

Yuri Kano
Japan
Age: 28
Residence: Tokyo, Japan

A graduate of Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Kano took fourth place in last year’s inaugural NYC Half-Marathon Presented by NIKE, running 1:11:44. She holds personal bests of 31:53.07 for 10,000 meters and 1:10:28 for the half-marathon. She debuted at the marathon in Osaka this year in a sparkling 2:24:43.

Hilda Kibet
Kenya
Age: 26
Residence: Iten, Kenya/Gröet, The Netherlands

Kibet has only been competing seriously for three years, yet she already has seen high-level international success. The cousin, training partner, and frequent racing rival of 2007 World Cross Country champion Lornah Kiplagat, Kibet finished second (to Susan Chepkemei) at this year’s NIKE Egmond Aan Zee Half-Marathon. She splits her time between the Netherlands and Kiplagat’s High Altitude Training Center in Kenya.

Susan Loken
United States
Age: 44
Residence: Phoenix, Arizona

Loken, the USA Masters Marathon champion in 2005, will certainly be at home in the first half of the course; she has won the past three editions of the women-only More Magazine Marathon, which is run entirely in Central Park. She ran an excellent 2:41:31 at the 2006 P.F. Chang’s Rock ’N’ Roll Arizona Marathon to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Women’s Marathon.

Alemtsehay Misganaw
Ethiopia
Age: 26
Residence: New York, New York

A fixture at the top of the local racing scene for the last several years, Ethiopian native Misganaw has developed into one of the best athletes in the Northeast and a consistent performer in races around the country. Although she has typically focused on shorter distance races, Misganaw has won the New Bedford Half-Marathon three times, most recently in a personal-best 1:15:37 this year.

Catherine Ndereba
Kenya
Age: 35
Residence: Nairobi, Kenya

No athlete over the last 10 years—or perhaps in history—has been as dominant as the woman they call “Catherine the Great.” In 2001, she became the first woman to crack the 2:19 marathon barrier, a feat only Paula Radcliffe has achieved since. In 2003, she became the first African woman to win the World Championships Marathon, and she followed that with silver-medal marathon performances in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens and the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki. A four-time champion of the Boston Marathon and two-time winner of the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon, Ndereba is the defending champion of the NYC Half-Marathon Presented by NIKE; she defeated Australia’s Benita Johnson by less than one second in a thrilling finish to the inaugural 2006 race. Her half-marathon personal best is 1:07:54.

Megumi Oshima
Japan
Age: 31
Residence: Tokyo, Japan

Oshima has twice competed in the Olympic Games for Japan and finished 10th in the 2005 World Championships Marathon, helping Japan to the silver medal in the team race. The bronze medalist at 10,000 meters in the 1998 Asian Games, Oshima helped host country Japan to the bronze medal at the 2006 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Fukuoka.

Madai Perez
Mexico
Age: 27
Residence: Toluca, Mexico

Perez became the Mexican national marathon record-holder with her fourth-place 2:22:59 at the 2006 Lasalle Bank Chicago Marathon, and she finished third in the 2007 Boston Marathon with a 2:30:16 in tough weather conditions. She is coached at high altitude in Mexico by German Silva, a two-time winner of the ING New York City Marathon. Her half-marathon PR is 1:10:37, set in 2005.

Nina Rillstone
New Zealand
Age: 32
Residence: Auckland, New Zealand

Although Rillstone had already begun running by the time she was a teenager, it was a magazine article on countrywoman (and 1992 Olympic bronze medalist) Lorraine Moller that sparked her interest in seeing just how fast she could go. After establishing the New Zealand half-marathon record in 2005 (1:10:49) and running the fastest marathon by a Kiwi in 20 years in her debut at the distance last spring, Rillstone stayed with Moller at her home in Colorado in the weeks leading up to the ING New York City Marathon, where she ran a controlled race to close well and finish seventh in 2:31:19.