Past Champions and Legends Returning for 111th Boston Marathon

John J. Kelley to Serve as Grand Marshal

Boston, Mass. - Each year, the Boston Athletic Association honors a number of past Boston Marathon champions and legends. In 2007, that group includes John J. Kelley (1957 champion), Kathrine Switzer (women's running pioneer), Nina Kuscsik (1972 champion), and Toshihiko Seko (1981 and 1987 champion). Boston's past champions are integrated into the race-week festivities, and they will also be involved on race day, Monday, April 16.

GRAND MARSHAL

No name is more synonymous with the Boston Marathon than Johnny Kelley. John A. Kelley, the elder, won the race in 1935 and 1945, and competed on 61 occasions.
John J. Kelley (no relation), the younger, finished second five times, winning his lone Boston Marathon title 50 years ago, on April 20, 1957. The younger Kelley also linked several generations of Boston legends. After being mentored by John A. Kelley, he guided Amby Burfoot to the 1968 Boston crown; Burfoot, in turn, inspired his college roommate, Bill Rodgers, who went on to win four Boston Marathons. John J. Kelley returns this year in the role of Grand Marshal, and will ride the course in a convertible. Kelley will then run the final stretch of Boylston Street, through a ceremonial break-tape at the finish line.

ELITE WOMEN'S FIELD OFFICIAL STARTER

Thirty-five years ago, seven women were entered in the first official women's field in Boston history. The champion on that day was Nina Kuscsik, with a time of 3:10:26. The women's division has flourished since then, growing from seven athletes to more than seven thousand. When the B.A.A. created a separate, earlier Elite Women's Start in 2004, the top women had the road to themselves for the first time in Boston. Kuscsik will return in 2007, on the anniversary of her historic 1972 victory, to fire the starting gun for the Elite Women's Start and USA Women's Marathon Championship, at 9:35 a.m.

FIRST PITCH AT FENWAY

One of the most dominant marathoners of the 1980s, Toshihiko Seko captured two Boston Marathon titles - first in 1981 and then in 1987. He returns to Boston this year to celebrate the latter, when he pulled away from former world-record holder Steve Jones in the final miles. Seko will be honored at Fenway Park on Sunday, April 15, when he throws out the first pitch before the Boston Red Sox game.

ALSO RETURNING

Kathrine Switzer marks the 40th anniversary of her first Boston Marathon in 1967 - best known for Jock Semple's attempt to tear Switzer's bib number off mid-race - with the publication of her autobiography, Marathon Woman. Switzer will also be covering the event as a commentator for WBZ-TV.

Eighteen years after becoming Boston's first Ethiopian champion, Abebe Mekonnen is returning to once again compete in the Boston Marathon. Now 43 years old, Mekonnen will be a top contender in the Masters Division.

Keizo Yamada, the 1953 champion, will be running his 17th Boston Marathon (13th consecutive). Yamada, frequently a top finisher in the 70-and-over division, finished in 4:16:07 last year at the age of 78.

One hundred years after Tom Longboat won the 11th Boston Marathon, four members of his family will return to Boston. In his lone appearance in Boston, Longboat - an Onandaga Indian from Hamilton, Ontario - set a course record of 2:24:24, defeating, among others, 1908 Olympic champion John J. Hayes. Longboat's daughter, Phyllis Winnie, will be accompanied by his grandson Brian Winnie, and great granddaughters Nichole DiGiacomo and Jessica Winnie. Additionally, members of Team Longboat, a Canadian running club, will be running this year's Boston Marathon in Longboat's honor.

Established in 1887, the Boston Athletic Association is a non-profit organization with a mission of managing athletic events and promoting a healthy lifestyle through sports, especially running. The B.A.A.'s Boston Marathon is the world's oldest annual marathon, and the organization manages other local events and supports comprehensive charity, youth, and year-round running programs. Since 1986, the principal sponsor of the Boston Marathon has been John Hancock Financial Services. In 2006, the Boston Marathon launched - along with the Flora London Marathon also in April - the World Marathon Majors Series. Other events in the series include the real,-Berlin-Marathon, The LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon, and the ING New York City Marathon.