Saturday, April 13 Racing Kicks off Patriots’ Day Weekend Festivities

BOSTON – Fast fields featuring Olympians, Paralympians, rising stars, and recent B.A.A. event winners will take center stage at the Boston 5K presented by Point32Health and B.A.A. Invitational Mile on Saturday, April 13. The deepest professional field in race history will include more than 100 accomplished athletes from 19 nations, set to square off for prize money and awards in the open, wheelchair, and Para Athletics Divisions.

“More than 40,000 athletes will take part in B.A.A. races across Boston Marathon weekend,” said Jack Fleming, President and Chief Executive Officer of the B.A.A. “Saturday’s Boston 5K and B.A.A. Invitational Mile fields feature some of the fastest American and international stars, many who are aiming to compete at the Olympics and Paralympics in Paris.

SPEED & EXCITEMENT EXPECTED FROM ACCOMPLISHED BOSTON 5K FIELD

A new champion will be crowned and the stage is set for another close race at the Boston 5K. Ben Flanagan (Canada), Edwin Kurgat (Kenya), and Alex Masai (Kenya) – all top-five finishers a year ago – will return. They were at the front of an exciting finish a year ago that saw the top 13 men come across the line within ten seconds of the winner.

Top Americans Cooper Teare, Zach Panning, and Drew Hunter look to be at the front of the field. Teare is the reigning U.S. club cross country national champion, while Panning led a majority of February’s USA Olympic Team Trials – Marathon and Hunter is a former national champion indoors at 2 miles. B.A.A. High Performance Team members Eric Hamer and Barry Keane will be racing their hometown event.

Also on the start line will be Ben Kigen, an Olympic steeplechase bronze medalist in 2021; Simon Koech, last year’s Diamond League winner in the steeplechase; and Merhawi Mebrahtu, the 5,000m World Junior Championships silver medalist. Ethiopians Getnet Wale and Addisu Yihune are the two fastest men in the field, having gone sub-13:00 on the track for 5,000 meters.

Leading the women’s field is USATF 5K National Champion and B.A.A. High Performance Team member Annie Rodenfels. Joining her are 2024 Team USA Olympic marathoner Dakotah Lindwurm, former American marathon record holder Keira D’Amato, perennial top-American Boston Marathoner Nell Rojas, as well as Team B.A.A. runners Abbey Wheeler, Bethany Hasz Jerde, and Megan Hasz Sailor.

Uganda’s Sarah Chelangat, the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile champion in 2023, and Mercy Chelangat, a former NCAA Cross Country and 10,000m winner, are both entered. Reigning B.A.A. Half Marathon champion Fotyen Tesfay of Ethiopia also comes back to Boston seeking another win.

In the wheelchair division, course record holder and six-time Boston Marathon champion Marcel Hug (Switzerland) will square off against Americans Daniel Romanchuk and Aaron Pike. Brazil’s Vanessa de Souza – the 2018 Boston 5K winner – is the women’s wheelchair division favorite. Perennial Para Athletics Division contenders El Amine Chentouf (T12, vision impairment), Brian Reynolds (T62, lower-limb impairment), and Marko Cheseto (T62, lower-limb impairment) will vie for prize money and podium placings. This will be the largest professional Para Athletics Division field in event history.

Nearly 10,000 participants will take part in the Boston 5K, serving as the first race of the 2024 B.A.A. Distance Medley series.

KRISSY GEAR LOOKS TO REPEAT IN B.A.A. INVITATIONAL MILE

Krissy Gear earned a hard-fought B.A.A. Invitational Mile win last year and now comes in with the target on her back as defending champion. Four of the top five finishers from 2024 return, including Susan Ejore (Kenya), Jazz Shukla (Canada) and Taryn Rawlings (USA). Micaela Degenero, the 2022 NCAA Indoor Mile champion, and 4:23.94 Helen Schlachtenhaufen are entered as well.

Massachusetts high school standout Ellie Shea will take on the professionals. The Belmont High School student-athlete finished 10th at last year’s B.A.A. Invitational Mile.

Massachusetts native and 3:52.94 miler Johnny Gregorek leads the men’s field of competitors. Melkeneh Azize of Ethiopia, the world junior champion at 3000m in 2022, and Harvard’s Vivien Henz, a national champion in Luxembourg, will each make their B.A.A. road racing debuts.

In addition to the professionals, student-athletes from each of the eight cities and towns that make up the Boston Marathon route will compete in a Scholastic Mile and Middle School 1K.

 

Boston 5K presented by Point32Health Professional Fields

 

Men’s Professional Field

Country

5,000m Track Personal Best

Getnet Wale

ETH

12:53.28 (Hengelo, 2021)

Addisu Yihune

ETH

12:58.99 (Hengelo, 2021)

Merhawi Mebrahtu

ERI

13:04:49 (Hueleva) NU20NR

Cooper Teare

USA

13:06.73 (Palo Alto, 2022)

Edwin Kurgat

KEN

13:08.46 (Los Angeles, 2023)

Athanas Kioko

KEN

13:09.37i (Boston, 2023)

Drew Hunter

USA

13:17.55 (San Juan Capistrano, 2020)

Eduardo Herrera

MEX

13:20.30 (Azusa, 2022)

Ben Flanagan

CAN

13:20.67 (Attleboro, 2021)

Barry Keane

IRL

13:21.57i (Boston, 2022)

Alex Masai

KEN

13:24.68 (Eugene, 2021)

Sam Gilman

USA

13:25.17 (Boston, 2021)

Matt Wilkinson

USA

13:31.25 (Boston, 2023)

Eric Hamer

USA

13:31.27 (Eugene, 2021)

Alec Basten

USA

13:32.98i (Fayetteville, 2021)

Zach Panning

USA

13:36.87i (Chicago, 2022)

Connor Black

CAN

13:38,09 (Langley, 2022)

Derek Johnson

USA

13:39.88 (Boston, 2023)

Titus Winders

USA

13:43.00 (Azusa, 2023)

Reed Fischer

USA

13:43.46 (Azusa, 2019)

Tim McGowan

USA

13:46.49 (Seattle, 2019)

Joey Berriatua

USA

13:49.16 (San Juan, Capistrano, 2020)

Paul Arredondo

USA

13:50.84 (Charlotte, 2022)

Benjamin Kigen

KEN

14:02.78A (Nairobi, 2022)

Eli Moskowitz

USA

14:02.96 (Charlottesville, 2018)

Tebello Ramakongoana

LSO

14:14.17 (Gaborone, 2022)

Dominic Bruce

USA

14:16.74 (Champaign, 2023)

Josh Kalapos

USA

14:33.88 (Lewisburg, 2019)

Simon Koech

KEN

N/A

Eric Linden

USA

N/A

 

Women’s Professional Field

Country

5,000m Track Personal Best

Sarah Chelangat

UGA

14:40.88 (Stockholm, 2023) NR

Vanessa Fraser

USA

15:05.04 (Portland, 2022)

Kim Conley

USA

15:05.20 (Hengelo, 2019)

Cintia Chepngeno

KEN

15:07.75 (Nairobi, 2023)

Annie Rodenfels

USA

15:08i (Boston, 2022)

Erika Kemp

USA

15:10.10 (Boston, 2021)

Fotyen Tesfay

ETH

15:12.06 (Heusden-Zolder, 2017)

Katrina Coogan

USA

15:14.13 (Concord, 2019)

Mercy Chelangat

KEN

15:17.28 (Walnut, 2022)

Dani Polerecky

USA

15:17.62 (San Juan Capistrano, 2020)

Sammy McClintock

USA

15:19.66 (Irvine, 2021)

Emmaculate Anyango Acholi

KEN

15:22.80 (Nerja, 2023)

Emily Durgin

USA

15:24.19 (Irvine, 2021)

Madie Boreman

USA

15:24.89 (Stanford, 2023)

Lauren Gregory

USA

15:25.17 (Walnut, 2022)

Bethany Hasz Jerde

USA

15:30.57 (Eugene, 2021)

Abbey Wheeler

USA

15:32.81 (Randall’s Island, 2022)

Esther Gitahi

KEN

15:35.49i (Boston, 2022)

Nell Rojas

USA

15:37.05 (Portland,2021)

Megan Hasz Sailor

USA

15:39:03i (Boston, 2019)

Cleo Boyd

CAN

15:57.37 (Toronto, 2021)

Katrina Spratford

USA

16:02.34 (Philadelphia, 2019)

Keira D’Amato

USA

16:09.86 (Sacramento, 2006)

Caroline Pomerleau

CAN

16:42.89 (Trois-Rivieres, 2023)

Dakotah Lindwurm

USA

16:43.86 (Des Moines, 2017)

Allie Hackett

USA

16:49.73 (Boston, 2022)

Jessica West

USA

N/A

 

Men’s Wheelchair Field

Country

Classification

Marcel Hug

SUI

T54

Daniel Romanchuk

USA

T54

Aaron Pike

USA

T54

Jetze Plat

NED

T54

Hermin Garic

USA

T53

Sho Watanabe

JPN

T54

Brian Siemann

USA

T53

Johnboy Smith

GBR

T54

Fidel Aguilar

MEX

T54

Santiago Sanz

ESP

T52

 

 

Men’s Para Athletics Division

Country

Classification

El Amine Chentouf

MOR

T12

Andrew Thorsen

USA

T13

Brian Reynolds

USA

T62

Marko Cheseto

USA

T62

Adam Popp

USA

T63

 

 

Women’s Wheelchair Field

Country

Classification

Vanessa Cristina de Souza

BRA

T54

Patricia Eachus

SUI

T54

Christie Dawes

AUS

T54

Carmen Gimenez Abad

ESP

T54

Hannah Babalola

NGR

T54

Veronica Gonzalez

MEX

T54

Eden Rainbow-Cooper

GBR

T54

 

 

Women’s Para Athletics Division

Country

Classification

Livea Flor Pereira Rodrigues

BRA

T12

 

 

B.A.A. Invitational Mile Professional Fields

 

Men’s Professional Field

Country

Mile Track Personal Best

Melkeneh Azize

ETH

3:33.74 1500m (Hengelo, 2021)

Johnny Gregorek

USA

3:52.94 (Oslo, 2019)

Aidan Ryan

USA

3:53.65 (Boston, 2023)

Rob Heppenstall

CAN

3:55.15 (Raleigh, 2022)

Abe Alvarado

USA

3:55.70 (Falmouth, 2023)

Kasey Knevelbaard

USA

3:55.92i (Boston, 2023)

Ben Veatch

USA

3:56.46i (NYC, 2024)

Henry McLuckie

GBR

3:56.56 (Seattle, 2024)

Aaron Ahl

CAN

3:57.21 (Eagle Rock, 2022)

Corey Bellemore

CAN

3:57.42 (Cork, 2018)

Vivien Henz

LUX

3:57.47i (Boston, 2023)

Casey Comber

USA

3:58.44 (Wilmington, 2022)

AJ Ernst

USA

4:00.36 (Providence, 2022)

Miles Smith

USA

4:01.08 (Raleigh, 2023)

 

Women’s Professional Field

Country

Mile Track Personal Best

Helen Schlachtenhaufen

USA

4:23.94 (NYC, 2023)

Taryn Rawlings

USA

4:24.09 (Zagreb, 2022)

Krissy Gear

USA

4:26.52 (Boston, 2023

Yolanda Ngarambe

SWE

4:28.30 (Boston, 2019)

Susan Ejore

KEN

4:32.33 (St. Louis, 2022)

Erin Teschuk

CAN

4:32.35i (Fayetteville, 2015)

Tori Gerlach

USA

4:32.51 (West Chester, 2018)

Micaela Degenero

USA

4:33.92 (Birmingham, 2022)

Abbe Goldstein

USA

4:34.15i (Seattle, 2023)

Ellie Leather

GBR

4:35.62 (Birmingham, 2022)

Sadi Henderson

USA

4:40.24 (Falmouth, 2022)

Ellie Shea

USA

4:40.58 (Falmouth, 2022)

Alma Cortes

MEX

4:41.10 (Tijuana, 2021)

Jazz Shukla

CAN

4:10.32 1500m (Vancouver, 2023)

Lizzie Bird

GBR

4:14.6 1500m (Stretford, 2020)

 

ABOUT THE BOSTON ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION (B.A.A.) 

 

Established in 1887, the Boston Athletic Association is a non-profit organization with a mission of promoting a healthy lifestyle through sports, especially running. The B.A.A. manages the Boston Marathon, and supports comprehensive charity, youth, and year-round programming. The 128th Boston Marathon presented by Bank of America is scheduled to take place on Monday, April 15, 2024. The Boston Marathon is part of the Abbott World Marathon Majors, along with international marathons in Tokyo, London, Berlin, Chicago, and New York City. For more information on the B.A.A., please visit www.baa.org.