Michael Aish
New Zealand
Age: 30

A native of New Plymouth, New Zealand, Aish moved to the United States to attend Western State College in Colorado, where he went on to establish five school records and win five NCAA Division II titles. Aish lives in Gunnison, CO, and shares a coach with fellow Healthy Kidney 10K athletes Craig Mottram and Andrew Letherby. He ran a personal-best 2:13:42 at the Fukuoka International Marathon in December and shaved seven seconds off his 10,000-meter best at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational in late April, giving him the Olympic “A” standard in both events. The two-time Olympian also holds the New Zealand and Oceania records for the indoor 5000-meter run.

Worku Beyi
Ethiopia
Age: 20

Since moving to the U.S. last spring, the easygoing Beyi, a resident of the Bronx, has established himself not only as one of the dominant racers on the New York City and Northeast running scenes, but as a contender in nearly every race he enters. Beyi, who lives and trains with fellow Healthy Kidney 10K entrant Demesse Tefera, recently finished 10th at the Lilac Bloomsday Run in Spokane, Washington, against a world-class field. He set a 10K PR of 28:43 at the 2007 Cooper River Bridge Run.

Martin Fagan
Ireland
Age: 23

Following in the footsteps of Irish greats John Treacy, Mark Carroll, and Keith Kelley, Fagan followed up his outstanding career as a junior athlete by enrolling at Providence College in Rhode Island, where he won two Big East cross country titles, posted the fastest collegiate time ever run at New York City’s Van Cortlandt Park, and finished as the runner-up at 10,000 meters at the 2006 NCAA Championships. Fagan, still a resident of Providence, recently ran a personal best of 28:18.30 at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational 10,000 meters.

Matt Gonzales
United States
Age: 25

Gonzales raised eyebrows when he won his opening-round 5000-meter heat at the 2004 Olympic Trials in a race that was televised nationally; he then finished sixth overall (top collegian) in the final. A few months later, Gonzales further established his credentials by taking second at the NCAA Championships behind two-time champion Simon Bairu. Shortly after making his professional debut in 2005, Gonzales finished second at both the 2005 USA 10K Championships (behind fellow Healthy Kidney 10K entrant Dathan Ritzenhein) and the 2006 USA 15K Championships (behind Olympic marathon silver medalist Meb Keflezighi), and helped Team USA to its first-ever bronze medal at the 2005 Chiba International Ekiden in Japan. Although he has struggled with injuries since last spring, Gonzales returned to racing in early May, finishing 12th at the Lilac Bloomsday Run in Spokane, Washington. Gonzales lives in Albuquerque.

Patrick Gildea
United States
Age: 27

Khalid Khannouchi
United States
Age: 35

Although he has lived in the New York metro area since coming to the United States from Morocco 14 years ago, and although he won the 1994 NYRR Team Championships 5-Mile in Central Park, Khannouchi—arguably the greatest marathoner of all time—will be making his New York City professional racing debut at the Healthy Kidney 10K. The U.S. record-holder in the marathon with his 2:05:38 clocking at the 2002 Flora London Marathon, Khannouchi is the former world record-holder at both the 20K and marathon distances and is a four-time champion of the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon. He has a blistering 27:58 10K personal best.

Richard Kiplagat
Kenya
Age: 26

Andrew Letherby
Australia
Age: 33

A frequent competitor on Australian world cross country and half-marathon teams, Letherby also represented his country at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, where he earned the bronze medal in the marathon. Letherby’s mother competed for Australia in the World Cross Country Championships and World Cup Marathon in the early 1980s, and his sister was a top Aussie race walker with five national medals to her credit. A 1998 graduate of Georgia State University, Letherby met and married his wife, Meg, there before settling in Colorado. He competed in New York City four times in 2006, including a commanding victory at the Emerald Nuts Midnight Run.

Craig Mottram
Australia
Defending Champion
Age: 26
           
“Buster” Mottram is returning to New York to attempt a third-straight Healthy Kidney 10K title. He has used the race the last two years as a springboard into his summer racing season, with breathtaking results: 2005 saw him break Australia’s 14-year-old record in the mile, capture the bronze medal at the IAAF World Championships in Helsinki, and finish the year with a win down New York City’s famed thoroughfare in the Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile, and the 2006 race set up a stellar track season that ended with a defeat of Olympic gold medalist and world record-holder Kenenisa Bekele for the gold medal at the IAAF World Cup in Athletics 3000 meters. Mottram, who divides his time between Geelong, Australia, and London, England, arrives in New York after a solid indoor season in which he established a new Australian record (his seventh) in the 3000 meters at the Boston Indoor Games and finished a close second to two-time Olympic 1500-meter medalist Bernard Lagat in the Wanamaker Mile at New York City’s Millrose Games. As a teenager, Mottram was a national champion triathlete and champion diver.

Dathan Ritzenhein
United States
Age: 24

Demesse Tefera
Ethiopia
Age: 24

Tefera made his U.S. racing debut at last year’s Healthy Kidney 10K. Although he had a disappointing run and did not finish the race, his early placing among the race leaders gave an indication that he would be one to watch. Since then, he has established himself as one of the dominant racers across the Northeast, and high placings at world-class races like the Lilac Bloomsday Run and the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10-Mile prove that he can be a factor in any race he enters. A New York resident and the 2006 NYRR Fred Lebow Runner of the Year, Tefera was a part of the corporate racing-team system in Japan, where he ran a personal best of 13:45 for 5K.

Justin Young
United States
Age: 27

Macharia Yuot
Sudan
Age: 25

Yuot’s journey to New York City and the Healthy Kidney 10K began 18 years ago, when the civil war that would ultimately take two million Sudanese lives reached his hometown of Paleek. Separated from his family and hunted by militia, Yuot became one of the estimated 26,000 “Lost Boys of Sudan,” walking nearly 1,500 miles through Ethiopia and Kenya over the course of three years before being lifted to the United States seven years ago. Brought to Pennsylvania by the Lutheran Church of Philadelphia, Yuot attended high school there before enrolling at Widener University to study social work. There he also began to develop his talents as a distance runner and eventually won five NCAA Division III titles, including a three-day span in May 2006 in which he won the 5000 meters, 10,000 metes, and 3000-meter steeplechase. Yuot, who still resides in Philadelphia, hopes to qualify for the 2008 Olympic Marathon Trials at next month’s Grandma’s Marathon in Minnesota and to gain U.S. citizenship in time to compete in the Trials in November.