NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES – (November 1, 2011) – Universal Sports Network and NBC Sports will provide more than 10 hours combined of television and online coverage of the 2011 ING New York City Marathon
this Sunday, November 6 beginning at 9:00am ET. The 42nd
running will air live on Universal Sports Network, with live streaming
available on INGNYCMarathon.org and UniversalSports.com
presented by MOTOACTV from Motorola. NBC will present a two-hour
marathon special from 2:00-4:00pm ET. The television and online
coverage will showcase the 26.2-mile race featuring more than
45,000 runners traversing New York City’s five boroughs: Staten
Island, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Manhattan, and finish
in world-famous Central Park.

 

COVERAGE ON UNIVERSAL SPORTS
Universal Sports Network will present LIVE coverage of the 2011 ING New
York City Marathon this Sunday, including pre-race and
post-race studio shows. The network’s 30-minute Pre-Race Show
presented by Skechers will begin at 9:00am ET and will feature
interviews with 2009 ING New York City Marathon champion Meb Keflezighi, Inside Endurance athlete Ryan Sutter and Global Senior Director of the Gatorade Sports Science Institute (GSSI) Asker Jeukendrup.
In addition, it will profile other race favorites and will
review the 26.2 mile course. The studio shows will be hosted by
Paul Sunderland alongside analyst and elite distance runner Josh Cox.

 

COVERAGE ON NBC SPORTS
NBC Sports will air same-day taped coverage of the Marathon from
2:00-4:00pm ET. The two hours of coverage is the only national
over-the-air television coverage of any major marathon outside
of the Olympics. Coverage is hosted by NBC Sports’ Jimmy Roberts.

 

THE PROFESSIONAL FIELDS
Headlining this year’s men’s field are 2010 ING New York City Marathon champion Gebre Gebremariam of Ethiopia, 2009 race champion Meb Keflezighi of the USA, 2011 Virgin London Marathon champion Emmanuel Mutai of Kenya, two-time world champion Jaouad Gharib of Morocco, reigning Boston Marathon champion Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya, Ethiopian Olympic and World Championships medalist Tsegaye Kebede, Olympians Juan Luis Barrios of Mexico and Abdellah Falil of Morocco and American debut marathoners Bobby Curtis and Ed Moran.

 

Also making their ING New York City Marathon debuts are 2011 IAAF World Championships Marathon bronze medalist Feyisa Lilesa of Ethiopia, 2010 SportZone Half-Marathon (Portugal) champion Stephen Kibet of Kenya, three-time Rome Marathon champion Firehiwot Dado of Ethiopia and World Championships medalist Werknesh Kidane of Ethiopia, along with the second-fastest half-marathoner in the world this year, Matthew Kisorio of Kenya, running his first full marathon ever.

 

In the women’s race, runners include three-time U.S. Olympian Jen Rhines, New Zealand Olympian Kim Smith, British Olympian Jo Pavey, 2010 Virgin London Marathon runner-up Inga Abitova of Russia, who finished in fourth place last year, Portugal’s championship long-distance duo of Jéssica Augusto and Ana Dulce Félix, U.S. debut marathoners Lauren Fleshman and Molly Pritz, reigning Boston Marathon champion Caroline Kilel of Kenya, 2011 London winner Mary Keitany of Kenya, 2011 Honda LA Marathon champion Buzunesh Deba of Ethiopia, Swedish marathon record holder Isabellah Andersson, and Galina Bogomolova, Russia’s second-fastest marathoner ever.

 

CELEBRITY ROSTER
This
year’s celebrity roster features more than 20 names from a wide range
of disciplines, from sports to television to music. Most of them
will race for one of the more than 200 charities involved in
this year’s ING New York City Marathon’s charity program, which
is projected to raise more than $26.2 million, or roughly $1
million per mile.

 

Among those racing are Inside Endurance athlete Ryan Sutter (Inside Endurance/Gatorade), whose journey to the marathon can be found at www.universalsports.com/G, U.S. Olympian speed skater Apolo Ohno (Subway), U.S. Olympian softball player Jennie Finch (Timex), The Weather Channel meteorologist Stephanie Abrams, Hall of Fame hockey player Mark Messier (New York Police & Fire Widow’s and Children’s Benefit Fund and Tomorrows Children’s Fund), model Christy Turlington (Every Mother Counts), model / actress Veronica Webb (Harlem United) and Grammy Award-Winning artist Mýa (North Shore Animal League America).

 

The premier event of New York Road Runners,
the ING New York City Marathon is one of the world’s great
road races, drawing some 140,000 applicants. The race attracts
many world-class professional athletes, not only for the
$650,000 in prize money, but also for the chance to excel in
the media capital of the world before two million cheering
spectators and a worldwide broadcast reach of 330 million. As any one
of the more than 875,000 past participants will attest, crossing
the finish line in Central Park is one of the great thrills of a
lifetime.

 

For more race information, go to: www.INGnycmarathon.org