New York, February 22, 2022 – The 2022 United Airways NYC Half on Sunday, March 20 will function the perfect skilled athlete area in occasion historical past, with 24 Olympians, eight Paralympians, and 6 open division athletes who maintain half marathon nationwide information of their respective nations.
The open division will embody U.S. Olympic medalists Galen Rupp and Molly Seidel, together with American half-marathon document holder Sara Corridor, whereas TCS New York Metropolis Marathon champions and U.S. Paralympic medalists Tatyana McFadden and Daniel Romanchuk will intention to defend their titles within the wheelchair division.
The United Airways NYC Half is considered one of New York Street Runners’ signature races, taking runners from Brooklyn’s Prospect Park to Manhattan’s Central Park, and passing historic landmarks and numerous neighborhoods and sweeping views of town alongside the way in which earlier than ending close to the long-lasting TCS New York Metropolis Marathon end line.
After being canceled in 2020 and never held in 2021 as a result of pandemic, the United Airways NYC Half will return at full scale this yr with an anticipated area of 25,000 runners – marking the primary NYRR race to return to its conventional area dimension. All skilled athletes within the area might be required to be absolutely vaccinated in opposition to COVID-19.
Males’s Open Division
Rupp, the American record-holder within the 10,000 meters who received silver within the distance on the London 2012 Olympics and bronze within the marathon on the Rio 2016 Olympics, will race the occasion for the second time, having beforehand completed third in 2011 on the occasion’s outdated course.
“The United Airways NYC Half was my debut on the distance, and was solely the second street race of my skilled profession,” Rupp mentioned. “I can’t consider that greater than a decade has handed since then. It’s wild that the race might be greater than double the scale it was after I ran in 2011, and I’ve heard the Brooklyn-to-Manhattan course is difficult, however an ideal tour of the Huge Apple. With the World Championships happening in my dwelling state of Oregon later this summer time, I’m on the lookout for the race to be an ideal stepping stone to every part else I wish to obtain in 2022.”
Difficult Rupp would be the 10K world record-holder Rhonex Kipruto from Kenya, and the American 5K record-holder Ben True, who in 2018 turned the primary American man to win the race within the open division. 5-time U.S. Olympian Abdi Abdirahman will make his tenth look within the occasion – his finest end was second place in 2007 – whereas U.S. Military officer Elkanah Kibet will make his debut after ending as the highest American in fourth place general on the 2021 TCS New York Metropolis Marathon. Two-time NCAA cross-country champion and reigning U.S. half marathon champion Conner Mantz will make his New York Metropolis street racing debut.
Ladies’s Open Division
Eight-time nationwide champion Corridor, no stranger to New York because the two-time defending champion of the Mastercard New York Mini 10K, will enter the occasion because the quickest American within the distance, having damaged the nationwide half marathon document in Houston in January with a time of 1:07:15. She did so on the identical course the place her husband and coach, Ryan Corridor, broke the lads’s document 15 years in the past.
“My NYC racing profession began with my win on the Fifth Avenue Mile approach again in 2006, and alongside the way in which I’ve damaged the tape on the Sprint to the End Line 5K on TCS New York Metropolis Marathon weekend and twice received the New York Mini 10K in Central Park,” Corridor mentioned. “Till now, although, I’ve by no means stepped to the road on the United Airways NYC Half. Setting the American document over that distance final month provides me a ton of confidence as I prepare for this new problem.”
Seidel will look to star in her first look within the race coming off a 2021 that included a bronze medal within the Tokyo Olympic marathon and an American course document and fourth-place end on the TCS New York Metropolis Marathon.
The deep U.S. ladies’s contingent additionally consists of two-time Olympian and 2018 Boston Marathon champion Des Linden, 2021 Chicago Marathon runner-up Emma Bates, 2021 TCS New York Metropolis Marathon seventh-place finisher Annie Frisbie, two-time Olympian Kim Conley, and reigning U.S. nationwide champions Erika Kemp and Makena Morley.
The Individuals will face a stacked group of worldwide ladies that features two-time World Championships silver medalist Senbere Teferi of Ethiopia, 2021 European Cross-Nation Championships gold medalist Karoline Bjerkeli-Grøvdal of Norway, and two-time World Championships gold medalist and former New York, Boston, and London Marathon winner Edna Kiplagat of Kenya.
Males’s Wheelchair Division
Romanchuk, a two-time Paralympic medalist and two-time TCS New York Metropolis Marathon winner, will look to defend his title within the occasion after successful in 2019 in 51:35. In 2018, Romanchuk turned the primary American and youngest athlete ever to win the lads’s wheelchair division on the TCS New York Metropolis Marathon, and repeated as champion in 2019. Final yr, he received his first set of Paralympic medals, taking 400-meter gold by one hundredth of a second after which successful bronze within the marathon.
A trio of College of Illinois freshmen – Evan Correll, Philip Croft, and Jason Robinson – will line up alongside Romanchuk, as all three make their half marathon debuts.
Ladies’s Wheelchair Division
McFadden will headline the ladies’s wheelchair division as an NYRR Workforce for Children Ambassador, a six-time Paralympian, 20-time Paralympic medalist, and the first-ever winner of the Abbott World Marathon Majors wheelchair sequence. In her profession, she has received 5 New York Metropolis Marathons, together with 4 consecutively, and is now on the lookout for her second consecutive and third general title within the United Airways NYC Half.
“I like this race. We get to run by all the good NYC iconic spots,” McFadden mentioned. “It’s enjoyable seeing all the youngsters operating in Occasions Sq. as we go by; it will likely be nice to be again after so lengthy.”
She might be challenged by Switzerland’s Manuela Schär, who received the race in 2018 and 2015. The Swiss powerhouse racer took dwelling 5 medals from her fifth Paralympic Video games in Tokyo final yr earlier than happening to win the Berlin, London, and Boston Marathons and end third in New York. Schär has received three TCS New York Metropolis Marathons, together with her most up-to-date victory in 2019 marking the second-fastest time ever in New York Metropolis Marathon historical past.
The occasion’s 2017 champion Susannah Scaroni will return to the roads for the primary time since she was injured in a automotive accident final fall whereas coaching on the roads. She received a gold and bronze medal on the Tokyo Paralympics final summer time and is the three-time defending champion of the Mastercard New York Mini 10K.
The 2022 United Airways NYC Half ladies’s open and wheelchair division skilled athlete fields are offered by Mastercard.
Stay protection of the occasion might be out there on ABC New York, Channel 7 within the New York space from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. ET on race day, with a full livestream out there nationally and internationally at 7:00 a.m. ET on abcyny.com, ESPN3 and NYRR’s social media platforms.
