Peachtree field full of elite runners

With plenty of cash on the table, the Atlanta Track Club has assembled a strong field for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race.

The club has brought in close to 40 elite men runners for the Saturday race, one of the largest groups of elite runners in race history. Sean Hartnett, a writer for Track & Field News magazine, graded it a four-star field.

“The Peachtree’s on the lips and minds back over in Kenya and Ethiopia,” Hartnett said. “They know about it.”

Three big names are Kenyan Sammy Kitwara, Moroccan Ridouane Harroufi and Ethiopian Tadese Tola. Last week, Kitwara won his country’s 10,000-meter track championship in 27 minutes, 44 seconds, the fastest time ever run in Kenya.

Harroufi has won several road races and like Kitwara is eligible for a $35,000 bonus if he wins the Peachtree, having won races on the Professional Road Running Organization circuit. The Peachtree is the circuit’s championship.

Tola is an up-and-comer who in May set the 10K course record in New York’s Central Park (27:48).

To put Kitwara and Tola’s times into perspective, they are the equivalent of running the length of a football field, goal line to goal line, in about 15 seconds, 109 times without stopping.

The top woman is likely Lineth Chepkurui of Kenya, an experienced road racer who will also be eligible for the $35,000 bonus. Hartnett graded the women’s field as “2 or 2½” stars.

The men’s and women’s winners will receive $15,000. The top American male will win $10,000, as the race is the USA Track and Field championship. The top competitors are Abdi Abdirahman and Anthony Farniglietti.