Maine Native Ben True and Mary Keitany of Kenya Returning to Defend Crowns at Special 20th TD Beach to Beacon 10K Road Race
Stellar elite field also includes Americans Shalane Flanagan and Jordan Hasay, two-time Olympic gold medalist Meseret Defar, and past champs Wude Ayalew, Joyce Chepkurui and Stephen Kosgei Kibet
CAPE ELIZABETH, Maine (July 20, 2017) - The special 20th TD Beach to Beacon 10K on Aug. 5 will feature both returning champs - Maine native Ben True, who last year became the first American to win the iconic summer road race, and Kenya's Mary Keitany, who shattered the course record in 2016.
They will be challenged in Cape Elizabeth, Maine by a stellar field of professional runners, 28 strong and including top Americans Shalane Flanagan and Jordan Hasay, two-time Olympic gold medalist Meseret Defar of Ethiopia, a trio of former TD Beach to Beacon champions - Joyce Chepkurui and Stephen Kosgei Kibet of Kenya and Ethiopian Wude Ayalew - and a host of other Olympians and All-Americans.
Race organizers on Thursday unveiled the professional field for the 2017 TD Beach to Beacon (see complete list at bottom) and announced that the race will again feature an Elite Women's Start, which debuted last year. The women will start 12 minutes ahead of the rest of the field.
"After such spectacular performances last year, getting Mary Keitany and Ben True back to defend their titles is truly special as we celebrate the 20th running of this race," said Olympic gold medalist Joan Benoit Samuelson, a worldwide running icon who founded the TD Beach to Beacon in her native Cape Elizabeth. "Ben is a homegrown hero and Mary continues to win every race she enters, but the field is deep and talented so nothing is promised - except another great day of road racing."
The field was assembled by Larry Barthlow, the race's elite athlete coordinator.
The world-class athletes will join a race-day throng of 6,500+ runners who will wind along the fast, relatively flat course that begins near the Crescent Beach State Park entrance on Route 77 in Cape Elizabeth and ends 6.2 miles later in Fort Williams Park at the Portland Head Light, the most photographed lighthouse in America. Samuelson, who trained on the same roads while growing up in Cape Elizabeth, will join the field this year for just the fourth time (she runs every five years).
The elite athletes will compete for more than $90,000 in prize money, with $10,000 awarded to the winners in the men's and women's open races and payouts to the top 10 runners overall, courtesy of title sponsor TD Bank. Also included is a $23,000 purse for American men and women, sponsored by Dunkin' Donuts, split evenly among the top five American men and women with a $5,000 top prize.
Last year Ben True's breakthrough performance as the first American to win the race meant he earned both top payouts - $15,000 in total. The North Yarmouth native, who now lives and trains in West Lebanon, N.H., has his sights on a repeat performance.
True, who came to Maine in 2016 after falling just short in his bid to make the U.S. Olympic team at 5000m, arrives under similar circumstances this year as he just missed a spot on the U.S. team for the IAAF World Championships in London next month. True finished 4th by a hair in the 5000m at the U.S. Championships in late June. The top three advanced.
Despite the setback, True, 31, a former Greely High School and Dartmouth College All-American, is having another strong season, especially on the roads. In April, he broke his own American 5K record at the B.A.A. 5K in Boston with a 13:20, two seconds better than his previous record set in 2015.
And he has always sparkled on the TD Beach to Beacon course. True won the Maine resident title in 2008 and 2009, when he set the course record in that category. He placed third (27:50) in his professional return to the TD Beach to Beacon in 2014 - the fastest road 10K by an American in 29 years. After missing the 2015 race for the IAAF World Championships - he placed 6th at 5000m - True returned last year and took home the top prize (28:12).
Two of the top challengers in 2017 will be familiar faces for True:
Stephen Kosgei Kibet, 30, of Kenya, finished just ahead of True at the 2014 TD Beach to Beacon (27:43), and then returned in 2015 and won the race. He missed last year's race due to visa issues.
Stephen Sambu, 29, of Kenya, finished just behind True in a two-man sprint finish at the B.A.A. 5K. The winner of the New York City Half Marathon in March, he has a career best 27:25 10K.
Other contenders include: Tariku Bekele, 30, of Ethiopia, the bronze medalist at 10,000m at the 2012 London Olympics; Leonard Kiplimo Barsoton, 22, of Kenya, who won silver at the 2017 World Cross Country championships and ran a 27:42 at the 2016 World's Best 10K; and Abdi Abdirahman, a four-time U.S. Olympian with top-10 performances in each of the past two TD Beach to Beacons.
The field also includes Cam Levins, 28, a Canadian Olympian with a personal best 27:07.51 at 10,000m; and Danny Abera, 28, of Ethiopia, brother of Olympic marathon champion Gezahenge Abera.
In addition to True, the field includes another professional runner with Maine ties. Will Geoghegan, 25, a Dartmouth All-American who attended Brunswick High School, won the 2014 Maine category race and returned as a professional in 2015 and finished 8th overall (29:48) as part of a successful pro debut year that included a PB 13:17.85 at 5000m in Belgium. Sidelined for most of the 2016 season, he competed in the 2017 U.S. Championships at 1500m and in June clocked a PB 3:56.24 in the mile at the Adrian Martinez Classic in Concord, Mass.
Other top American distance runners rounding out the field are: Jon Grey, who finished 7th at the Peachtree 10K earlier this month; Aaron Braun, 30, who took 6th at the 2014 TD Beach to Beacon; Dan Hulings, 5th in the steeplechase at the 2015 IAAF World Championships, last month he missed making the U.S. World Champs team for the first time in five tries; Mason Ferlic, another one of America's best at the steeplechase, the Michigan All-American won the 2016 NCAA 3000m steeplechase; and Ty McCormack, 24, a former Clemson and Auburn track standout who excels in the half marathon.
In the women's division, Kenyan Mary Keitany pulled away from the TD Beach to Beacon field in 2016, winning by almost a minute over her nearest challenger. She has remained as dominant as any runner on the road race circuit ever since. One of the best marathoners in the world, the 35-year-old notched a record-setting victory at the 2017 London Marathon this spring, her third London win. Keitany's 2:17:01 set a world record for an all-women's race (minus male pacemakers).
Keitany, the three-time defending TCS New York City Marathon champion, followed up in June with a convincing win at the NYRR New York Mini 10K in Central Park. Her time of 31:20 was more than 48 seconds ahead of the rest of the field.
She is expected to find stiffer competition at the TD Beach to Beacon, where a handful of her challengers have in the recent past either notched victories or close seconds on the seaside course.
Olympic silver medalist Shalane Flanagan, 36, is returning to the TD Beach to Beacon for the first time since her runner-up finish in 2014 (31:27). The American 10K record holder (30:52) suffered a back fracture earlier this year, forcing her to withdraw from the Boston Marathon. The Marblehead, Mass., native returned to competition in June and placed fourth in the 10,000m at the U.S. championships, missing the three-woman team for the world championships. It snapped her streak of making every U.S. Olympic and world outdoor team from 2004 through 2016.
The TD Beach to Beacon will mark Flanagan's first road race since the Olympic marathon in the 2016 Rio Games.
Ethiopian Wude Ayalew, 30, won the 2015 TD Beach to Beacon (31:56) and returned last year and gamely battled Keitany before settling for second. This will be the fifth TD Beach to Beacon for Ayalew, a World Championship Bronze medalist who also placed second at the 2010 TD Beach to Beacon in 31:07, the third fastest time ever on the course.
Joyce Chepkirui, 28, of Kenya, also is returning. She won the 2013 TD Beach to Beacon in 31:23 - the fourth fastest time on the course. Her best 10K time is 30:37.
Meanwhile, Meseret Defar, 33, of Ethiopia, will be making her first appearance at the TD Beach to Beacon, bringing along a reputation as one of the best runners ever at the 5K distance. She has won two Olympic gold medals (2004 Athens, 2012 London) and one bronze (2008 Beijing) in the 5000m, and holds the world record in the road 5K (14:46). She is a six-time world champion, has set nine world records and was the 2007 IAAF Athlete of the Year. Her 29:59.2 at 10,000m makes her one of only six women ever to break 30 minutes at that distance. Defar stepped away from competition in 2014 to start a family, returning in 2016.
Other contenders include Diane Nukuri, 33, a three-time Olympian for Burundi who has four top-10 finishes at the TD Beach to Beacon, including a 2nd in 2015 (32:00) and 3rd in 2014 (31:56); and Jordan Hasay, 25, of Beaverton, Ore., who broke the U.S. marathon debut record (2:23:00) while finishing 3rd at the 2017 Boston Marathon. A 16-time All-American at Oregon, she ran her first 10K as a professional runner at the 2014 TD Beach to Beacon, finishing 4th in 32:20. Hasay placed 3rd at the recent Peachtree 10K.
Purity Rionorijpo, 24, of Kenya, the 2009 World Youth Champion who won the 2017 Paris Marathon champion, also is in the mix.
The remaining American distance runners include Erin Finn, 22, an All-American at Michigan; Liz Costello, 29, from Newton, Mass., who placed 6th at the 2015 TD Beach to Beacon; Emma Bates, 25, a 12-time All-American at Boise State; Katie Matthews, 26, a five-time All-American at Boston University who placed 5th at the 2013 NCCA Outdoor Championships at 10,000m; Margo Malone, an All-American at Syracuse who placed 7th at the 2015 NCAA Outdoor Championships at 10,000m; and Emma Ketesz, 27, an All-American at the University of Toledo.
The TD Beach to Beacon 10K is directed by Dave McGillivray of DMSE Sports (www.dmsesports.com), who also directs the B.A.A Boston Marathon and is regarded as one of the world's elite race directors.
In 2016, 6,336 runners from 15 countries, 43 states and more than 265 Maine cities and towns finished the winding, rolling, often breathtaking 6.2-mile coastal course.
The 2017 beneficiary, Let's Go!, is a nationally recognized program of The Barbara Bush Children's Hospital at Maine Medical Center focused on increasing physical activity and healthy eating for children from birth to age 18. Let's Go! (www.letsgo.org) will receive a $30,000 donation from the TD Charitable Foundation, the charitable giving arm of TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank:registered:, and further benefit from fundraising and publicity connected to the race.
In addition to TD Bank, other major corporate partners include Nike, Hannaford, Poland Spring, MaineHealth, L.L.Bean, IDEXX, Northeast Delta Dental, WCSH6 TV, Olympia Sports and Maine Magazine. For additional information about the race, visit www.beach2beacon.org, and follow the race on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
About the TD Charitable Foundation
The TD Charitable Foundation is the charitable giving arm of TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank:registered:, one of the 10 largest commercial banking organizations in the United States. The Foundation's mission is to support, respect and improve the quality of life in the diverse communities where we live and do business. Since its inception in 2002, the Foundation has distributed more than $174.1 million and more than 17,000 grants in charitable donations from Maine to Florida. The TD Charitable Foundation focuses on supporting the following community needs: affordable housing, economic development, neighborhood revitalization, financial literacy, and human services. Recently, more than 90 percent of the grants awarded by the Foundation benefited low-and moderate- income communities and individuals. More information on the TD Charitable Foundation, including an online grant application, is available at www.TDBank.com.
About TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank:registered:
TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank, is one of the 10 largest banks in the U.S., providing more than 9 million customers with a full range of retail, small business and commercial banking products and services at more than 1,200 convenient locations throughout the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Metro D.C., the Carolinas and Florida. In addition, TD Bank and its subsidiaries offer customized private banking and wealth management services through TD Wealth:registered:, and vehicle financing and dealer commercial services through TD Auto Finance. TD Bank is headquartered in Cherry Hill, N.J. To learn more, visit www.tdbank.com. Find TD Bank on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TDBank and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TDBank_US.
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Elite Athlete Fields for the 2017 TD Beach to Beacon 10K (updated thru July 20)
WOMEN
Mary Keitany Kenya
Wude Ayalew Ethiopia
Joyce Chepkirui Kenya
Shalane Flanagan USA
Jordan Hasay USA
Meseret Defar Ethiopia
Diane Nukuri Burundi
Purity Rionorijpo Kenya
Erin Finn USA
Liz Costello USA
Emma Bates USA
Katie Matthews USA
Margo Malone USA
Emma Ketesz, USA
MEN
Ben True USA
Stephen Sambu Kenya
Stephen Kosgei Kibet Kenya
Leonard Kiplimo Barsoton Kenya
Tariku Bekele Ethiopia
Will Geoghegan USA
Danny Abera Ethiopia
Cam Levins Canada
Jonathan Grey USA
Mason Ferlic USA
Abdi Abdirahman USA
Aaron Braun USA
Dan Hulings USA
Ty McCormack USA
Here is more information about the TD Beach to Beacon 10K
July 20, 2017
Contact:
Larry Barthlow, Elite Athlete Coordinator
(617) 206-0629
E-mail: larry@worldeventsnetwork.com
Jason Wolfe, Wolfe PR
(520) 399-5097
E-mail: jason@wolfenews.com
Web Site: http://www.beach2beacon.org