Ryan Hall to Debut at Flora London Marathon

LONDON - (January 25, 2007) - The USA's latest distance running star Ryan Hall has chosen London as the venue for his first ever marathon.

Little more than a week after smashing the North American half-marathon record at the USA Championships in Houston, the 24-year-old Californian is the latest star name to sign up for the 2007 men's Flora London Marathon on Sunday, April 22 when he will line up alongside the legendary Haile Gebrselassie, the world record holder Paul Tergat, the two-time world champion Jaouad Gharib and the 2004 Olympic champion Stefano Baldini.

Hall became the first American ever to run the half-marathon in under an hour when he won the Aramco Houston Half Marathon on January 14 in 59:43, beating the 21-year-old record by 72 seconds. He also defeated the 2004 Olympic Marathon silver medalist and Team Running USA teammate Meb Keflezighi, and is now the 8th fastest half-marathon runner of all-time from an unaided certified course.

Afterwards, Hall announced that he was looking to make his marathon debut in the spring to gain experience ahead of the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials to be held as part of the ING New York City Marathon in November.

"We are delighted that Ryan has chosen the Flora London Marathon to make his debut at the distance," said race director David Bedford. "Ryan has shown that he is a very exciting talent in superb form and he will be a valuable addition to the illustrious elite field we announced earlier."

"It's going to be really hard and I'm expecting it to be more challenging than anything I've ever done," said Hall of his first marathon experience. "I'm just going to go out there and stick my nose in it."

Hall has been in highly impressive form recently. He set a U.S. record of 57:54 for 20K when he finished 11th at the IAAF World Road Running Championships in Debrecen, Hungary, in October 2006.

The Stanford grad was the 2005 U.S. collegiate champion at 5000m and won a place on the U.S. team for the IAAF World Championships in Helsinki that year by finishing third at the USA Championships. A U.S. high school mile champion while at school in Big Bear, California, he ran the third fastest ever 1500m by a U.S. high school student.

As well as chasing prize money and record bonuses totaling more than $250,000, the competitors in this year's race will also by fighting for points towards the World Marathon Majors (WMM) series. The other WMM races this year are the Boston Marathon (April 16), real,- Berlin Marathon (September 30), LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon (October 7) and ING New York City Marathon (November 4), plus the IAAF World Championships marathon races on Osaka (August 25 for men and September 2 for women).

Flora London Marathon 2007 Men's Field

NAME / personal record
Paul Tergat (KEN), 2:04:55, world record
Khalid Khannouchi (USA / NY), 2:05:38, U.S. record
Haile Gebrselassie (ETH), 2:05:56, two-time Olympic 10,000m gold medalist
Felix Limo (KEN), 2:06:14, defending race champion
Martin Lel (KEN), 2:06:41, 2005 race champion
Hendrick Ramaala (RSA), 2:06:55
Jaouad Gharib (MAR), 2:07:02, 2003 / 2005 World Champion
Stefano Baldini (ITA), 2:07:22, 2004 Olympic Marathon gold medalist
Benson Cherono (KEN), 2:07:58
Hicham Chat (MAR), 2:07:59
Marilson Gomes dos Santos (BRA), 2:08:48
Jon Brown (GBR), 2:09:31
Meb Keflezighi (USA / CA), 2:09:53, 2004 Olympic Marathon silver medalist
Juan Carlos De la Ossa (ESP), debut
Ryan Hall (USA / CA), debut

source RunningUSA