Elite Competitive Field in Abbott Dash Expected to Increase Impact

The 2017 Abbott Dash to the Finish Line 5K and USA Track & Field (USATF) 5K Championships on Saturday, November 4, will feature 10 Olympians and six members of Team USA from the 2017 IAAF World Championships. Hosted by New York Road Runners (NYRR), the event will take place the day prior to the TCS New York City Marathon and will be broadcast live on USATF.TV as the 10th stop on the 2017 USATF Running Circuit.

The professional athletes will contend for a $60,000 prize purse – the largest of any 5K race in history – including Olympic 1500-meter champion Matthew Centrowitz and American 5K road record-holder Ben True in the men’s field, and two-time Olympian Desiree Linden and World Championship silver medalist Brenda Martinez in the women’s field.

True, 31, of Hanover, NH, is the 5K American record-holder on the roads, having broken his own record at the B.A.A. 5K in April, when he prevailed in a two-man sprint against Stephen Sambu to take the tape in 13:20. His previous American-record mark of 13:22 was also set at the B.A.A. 5K back in 2015. Since becoming a professional athlete, True has won eight of the twelve 5K road races he’s participated in, and has raced the Abbott Dash to the Finish Line 5K in New York twice previously. His sixth-place finish at the 2013 IAAF World Cross Country Championships led the U.S. men to a surprise team silver medal, and he has won seven national titles on the road in his career.

Centrowitz, 27, of Portland, OR, won the 1500 meters at the Rio 2016 Olympics, leading virtually wire to wire and closing his final lap in 50.62 seconds to take the gold medal. He became the first American man to win the Olympic 1500 meters since 1908. Earlier in 2016, he won the 1500 meters at the IAAF World Indoor Championships. Centrowitz first made a name for himself on the international stage when he won a bronze medal over 1500 meters at the 2011 IAAF World Championships. After taking fourth in the distance at the London 2012 Olympics – missing out on a medal by four hundredths of a second – he took silver in the event the following summer at the IAAF World Championships. In New York City, Centrowitz has won the NYRR Millrose Games Wanamaker Mile three times in his career, and the 5th Avenue Mile once.

Linden, 34, of Washington Township, MI, ran the marathon distance at the last two Olympics, finishing seventh at the Rio 2016 Games after dropping out with an injury at the London 2012 Games. She has recorded top-five finishes in several of the Abbott World Marathon Majors, including runner-up finishes in Chicago (2010) and Boston (2011) and a fifth-place finish in New York (2014). Last year, she served alongside other members of the U.S. Olympic Marathon team as a Grand Marshal for the TCS New York City Marathon.

Martinez, 30, of Big Bear, CA, made her third consecutive IAAF World Championships team in the 800 meters this summer. In her first IAAF World Championships appearance in 2013, she became the first American woman in event history to medal in the 800 meters. After initially placing third, she was upgraded to a silver medal in 2017 after second-place finisher, Russia’s Mariya Savinova, was disqualified for doping. She qualified for the U.S. Olympic Team in 2016 by beating Amanda Eccleston by .03 seconds in the 1500 meters at the Trials; she finished 12th in her semifinal at the Rio Olympics.

Additional Top Professional Athlete Backgrounds and Notable Performances

• Paul Chelimo: The 27-year-old from Colorado Springs, CO, became the first USATF athlete to medal in the 5000 meters since 1964 when he took silver behind Great Britain’s Mo Farah in a personal-best time of 13:03.90 at the Rio 2016 Olympics. Chelimo captured the bronze medal in the 5000 meters at the IAAF World Championships in London in August.

• Leonard Korir: The 30-year-old from Colorado Springs, CO, won the 2015 United Airlines NYC Half and qualified for the 10,000 meters at the Rio 2016 Olympics after finishing third at the U.S. Olympic Trials. He finished 13th in the distance at this summer’s IAAF World Championships in London.

• Hassan Mead: The 28-year-old from Eugene, OR, represented the U.S. in the 5000 meters at the Rio 2016 Olympics after recording a second-place finish at the Trials the month before. This summer, he finished first in the 10,000 meters at the USATF Championships and competed in that event in the IAAF World Championships in London.

• Abbey D’Agostino: The 25-year-old from Topsfield, MA, is a six-time NCAA champion who received the Rio 2016 Fair Play Award at the last Olympics after finishing her 5000-meter heat together with New Zealand’s Nikki Hamblin after the two tripped and fell midway through the race.

• Natosha Rogers: The 26-year-old from Littleton, CO, won the USATF Half-Marathon Championships last spring. This summer, Rogers doubled at the USATF National Championships, placing fifth in the 10,000 meters and 11th in the 5000 meters. She was the third American finisher at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in March.

USATF 5K Championships – Men’s Field

USATF 5K Championships – Women’s Field

The USATF Running Circuit features USATF championships from one mile through the marathon and consistently attracts the best American distance runners with more than $500,000 to be awarded in total prize money. Last year’s USATF 5K Championships took place in Providence, Rhode Island, where 2016 World Indoor Championships silver medalist Ryan Hill won the men’s race and Aliphine Tuliamuk won her third national title on the women’s side.

Following in the footsteps of the professional athletes will be more than 10,000 runners participating in the Abbott Dash to the Finish Line 5K, including New York City local elites and people visiting from around the world. The mass race will offer a $13,000 NYRR member prize purse. Rio 2016 Olympians Donn Cabral of the U.S. and Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal of Norway won last year’s Abbott Dash to the Finish Line 5K. The course record-holders for the race are New Zealander Nick Willis (13:46, 2013) and American Molly Huddle (15:27, 2013).

Abbott, the title sponsor of the Abbott World Marathon Majors, will be the sponsor of the Abbott Dash to the Finish Line 5K for the second consecutive year.

The Abbott Dash to the Finish Line 5K annually provides TCS New York City Marathon supporters, friends and families the opportunity to join in on the thrill of marathon race week. The course begins on Manhattan’s east side by the United Nations, then takes runners along 42nd Street past historic Grand Central Terminal and up the world-famous Avenue of the Americas past Radio City Music Hall. It then passes through the rolling hills of Central Park before finishing at the iconic TCS New York City Marathon finish line.

About New York Road Runners (NYRR): Founded in 1958, New York Road Runners has grown from a local running club to the world’s premier community running organization, whose mission is to help and inspire people through running. NYRR’s commitment to New York City’s five boroughs features races, community events, youth running initiatives, school programs, and training resources that provide hundreds of thousands of people each year, from children to seniors, with the motivation, know-how, and opportunity to Run for Life. NYRR’s premier event, and the largest marathon in the world, is the TCS New York City Marathon. Held annually on the first Sunday in November, the race features 50,000 runners, from the world’s top professional athletes to a vast range of competitive, recreational, and charity runners. To learn more, visit nyrr.org. 

About USATF: USA Track & Field (USATF) is the National Governing Body for track and field, long-distance running and race walking in the United States. USATF encompasses the world's oldest organized sports, some of the most-watched events of Olympic broadcasts, the country's No. 1 high school and junior high school participatory sport and more than 30 million adult runners in the United States. For more information on USATF, visit www.usatf.org.

About Abbott: At Abbott, we're committed to helping you live your best possible life through the power of health. For more than 125 years, we've brought new products and technologies to the world – in nutrition, diagnostics, medical devices and branded generic pharmaceuticals – that create more possibilities for more people at all stages of life. Today, 94,000 of us are working to help people live not just longer, but better, in the more than 150 countries we serve. Connect with us at www.abbott.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Abbott and on Twitter @AbbottNews and @AbbottGlobal.