NEW YORK – Thursday was media day at the 2024 TCS New York City Marathon, which is shaping up as a particularly star-studded version of the fabled race on the men’s side. For the first time in 10 years, New York has attracted the reigning men’s Olympic champion – Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia – in addition to silver medalist Bashir Abdi of Belgium. There’s also former NYC champs Geoffrey Kamworor, Albert Korir, and Evans Chebet and the top two American men right now in Conner Mantz and Clayton Young.
LetsRun.com had boots on the ground on Thursday and we learned so much we wrote three separate articles. One focuses on the women’s pros in NYC like Hellen Obiri and the retiring Jenny Simpson. In another, we asked women’s pros like Obiri, Tirunesh Dibaba, and Sharon Lokedi for their thoughts on Ruth Chepngetich’s marathon world record. The third is the one you’re reading now, which includes Mantz’s thoughts on the American half marathon record and an injury update on Kamworor.
Tamirat Tola is definitely the favorite
We began today thinking that Tamirat Tola was the favorite on Sunday and after chatting to the athletes, agents, and coaches at media day, we are still confident in that prediction (granted, Olympic silver medalist Bashir Abdi and 2021 NYC champ Albert Korir were absent).
Tola was confident about his chances, saying he had “trained well” and “my body is also in good shape” and that he has confidence as a result. He said he hoped he could run better than last year, when he ran a 2:04:58 course record…