SPOKANE, Wash. — There will be no defending champions among this year's Bloomsday elite athlete fields for the first time in several years.
The 48th annual Bloomsday race will be without Tekoa native Susannah Scaroni, who will not vie for her seventh Bloomsday title as she continues preparations for this year's Paralympic Games.
Also, last year's men's elite champion Jemal Yimer is injured and will not be returning to vie for his third Bloomsday title.
This leaves a wide-open elite field this year. Without Scaroni's presence, the women's wheelchair division will likely be a battle of the Hannahs between Nigerian Hannah Babalola and Hannah Dederick from Illinois.
Without Yimmer, the men's elite division is wide open, but elite athlete coordinator Andy LeFriec is pleased with this year's field and believes the course record could be shattered in the rain on Sunday.
"Cold is good. It equals fast. We are trying to take down the course record. We have a new $1,200 course record bonus this year, so we are trying to get this record and we have some athletes who could do it this year," LeFriec said.
This year's Bloomsday elite race is also a pro championship, meaning an extra $15,000 will be added to the winner's purse.
Several speedy runners in the men's elite division include Ethiopian Mogos Tuemay, Moroccan Omar Ait Chitachen, and Leothan Tebello Ramakongoana.
In the elite women's division, two-time Olympian Belarusan Olga Mazaronak will be running Bloomsday for the first time along with two-time NCAA champion Mercy Chelangat. American Makena Morley will run her 19th Bloomsday.
The men's wheelchair division is wide open as Hermin Garic will go for his first win on his seventh Bloomsday against a trio of young University of Arizona athletes, Wyatt Willand, Aiden Gravelle and Dustin Stallberg.
The two returning champions are wheelchair Masters champion Raphael Botsyo and quad division champion Santi Sanz.
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