38th Running of the Los Angels Marathon presented by ASICS

 Los Angeles, CA- The 38th running of the Los Angeles Marathon presented by ASICS takes off out of Dodger Stadium tomorrow morning at 6:29 a.m. with the pro wheelchair division, followed by 22,000 marathoners toeing the line. 

In the professional foot race, new champions will be crowned as 2022 winners John Korir and Delvine Meringor of Kenya will be racing elsewhere this spring. 

For the second year, the Morgan & Morgan Marathon Chase will be in play, the unique race within a race format pitting the pro men against the pro women in a handicap competition where the women are given a head start and the question will be whether the lead man can run down the top woman for the big prize. 

The race within the race gender matchup was first instituted back in 2004 and run for 11 consecutive years before the 2015 USATF Marathon Championship the 2016 Olympic Trials were contested in LA, sidelining the Chase. 

The challenge format was resurrected last year very successfully, with women’s winner Delvine Meringor holding off two-time men’s champion John Korir by just eight seconds at the Century City finish line. 

This year the differential between the men and women is 18:19, that’s 2:14 more than last year‘s 16:05. But the differential is based on the specifics of the particular fields in play.

This year fields are not deep, but do look well matched at the very top. Three men in particular look to be favorites And it’s a classic matchup of two young lions going after an older, more savvy veteran racer. And we have a similar dynamic in the men’s professional wheelchair division as well. 2019 champion and former push-rim world record holder Josh Cassidy from Toronto, Canada, 38,  will be challenged by four young upstarts from the University of Arizona’s Adaptive Athletics program who have been coming on very strong the last couple of years. It’s the classic matchup really, as the new generation looks to make its name on one of the bigger stages of the sport. 

In the men’s pro foot race, Yemane Tsegay from Ethiopia is 37  now but hasn’t run a serious marathon in over 18 months. After finishing in eighth place at the Barcelona Marathon in 2021 in 2:07:17, opportunities just dried up for the 2015 World Championship Marathon silver medalist. He wasn’t injured, he just couldn’t find the right opportunities.