By David Monti, @d9monti.bsky.social | (c) 2025 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved; used with permission
(05-Feb) — It may not show up on Google Maps but the road to San Diego runs through Atlanta, at least for USA athletes hoping to run in the half-marathon at the World Athletics Road Running Championships on Sunday, September 28. The Atlanta Track Club is hosting the USATF Half-Marathon Championships on Sunday, March 2, as part of the Publix Atlanta Half-Marathon at The Home Depot Backyard, and the top three men and women will earn qualifying spots for Team USATF in San Diego. A huge field of 110 elite athletes will compete for a $110,000 prize money purse, and the winners will take home $20,000.
KELATI LEADS WOMEN’S FIELD
The women’s field is particularly strong led by national half-marathon record holder and reigning USA 10,000m champion Weini Kelati (Under Armour/Dark Sky Distance). Kelati, 28, who just lowered her own national record to 1:06:09 seventeen days ago at the Aramco Houston Half-Marathon, will be trying to qualify for her second consecutive World Athletics Road Running Championships, and her first at the half-marathon. At the first edition of those championships in Riga in October, 2023, Kelati ran the 5-K and finished seventh.
“It’s always an honor to represent @usatf and the red, blue and white,” Kelati wrote on Instagram after competing in Riga in 2023.
Half a dozen other women are hoping to challenge Kelati led by rising road running star Amanda Vestri (Brooks/ZAP Endurance). Vestri, 25, is coming off of a pair of quality half-marathons achieved over a stretch of 44 days. Last December 7th, she ran 1:08:12 at the OUC Orlando Half-Marathon in Florida in her debut at the distance, then on January 19th she ran an even faster 1:07:35 at the Aramco Houston Half-Marathon.
Emma Grace Hurley (Asics), the reigning USA Running Circuit Champion, is also in the field and boasts a 1:08:26 personal best from her one half-marathon run in Indianapolis last November. A trio of marathoners –Sara Hall (Asics), Annie Frisbie (Puma/Minnesota Distance Elite), and Dakotah Popehn (Puma/Minnesota Distance Elite), are also on the entry list and have run 1:07:15, 1:07:34, and 1:08:04, respectively. Another marathoner, Jessica McClain (Brooks), who finished fourth at the 2024 Olympic Trials, is hoping to make the national team and also lower her recent personal best of 1:12:05 (her marathon personal best of 2:25:46 is equivalent to a 1:09:26 half-marathon).
Two up-and-coming women, Emily Venters (Nike) and Taylor Roe (Puma Elite Running), could also get on the podium. Both Venters, 25, and Roe, 24, made their half-marathon debuts at the Aramco Houston Half and both clocked 1:08:48.
A total of 17 women who have entered have broken 70 minutes for the half-marathon.
OLYMPIANS KORIR, BOR AND YOUNG LEAD MEN’S FIELD
Three Olympians –Leonard Korir (U.S. Army), Hillary Bor (Hoka) and Clayton Young (Asics) lead the men’s field. Korir, who competed in the Olympic 10,000m in Rio in 2016 and the marathon in Paris in 2024, has the fastest personal best in the field: 59:52. Bor, twice an Olympic steeplechaser, has run 1:00:20, and Young, who finished ninth at the Paris Olympic Marathon, has run 1:00:52.
An additional six men –Teshome Mekonen (On), Biya Simbassa (Under Armour), Andrew Colley (ZAP Endurance), Alex Maier (Puma Elite Running), Reed Fischer (adidas), and Ryan Ford (ZAP Endurance), have run sub-1:01:00. Simbassa was the top American finisher in Riga, coming home 25th in 1:01:28. 10,000m Olympian Joe Klecker (On Athletics Club), who has only run one half-marathon, is also entered and has a 1:01:06 personal best.
Conner Mantz, the USA record holder with a 59:17 personal best, will not be competing, Atlanta Track Club officials said.
Prize money will be paid ten deep for both men and women:
1st – $20,000
2nd – 12,000
3rd – 7,500
4th – 5,000
5th – 3,000
6th – 2,500
7th – 2,000
8th – 1,500
9th – 1,000
10th – 500
The reigning USATF half-marathon champions are Aliphine Tuliamuk (Brooks) and Jacob Thomson (Under Armour/Dark Sky Distance). These championships, part of the USATF Running Circuit, were last held in Fort Worth, Texas, in February, 2023. They were not held in 2024.
The Atlanta Track Club, a not-for-profit which promotes fitness through running and walking with more than 38,000 members, is the second-largest running organization in the United States after New York Road Runners. They produce more than 50 events each year, and put on the 2020 USA Olympic Team Trials Marathon which selected the teams for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The full entry fields are below:
WOMEN –
Weini Kelati, 1:06:09
Sara Hall (40+), 1:07:15
Annie Frisbie, 1:07:34
Amanda Vestri, 1:07:35
Dakotah Popehn, 1:08:04
Emma Grace Hurley, 1:08:26
Emily Venters, 1:08:48
Taylor Roe, 1:08:48
Nell Rojas, 1:08:52
Paige Wood, 1:09:20
Margareta Montoya, 1:09:26
Jessica Gockley-Day, 1:09:37
Lauren Hagans, 1:09:41
Aubrey Frentheway, 1:09:42
Molly Bookmyer, 1:09:44
Stephanie Bruce, 1:09:55
Makena Morley, 1:09:57
Jacqueline Gaughan, 1:10:01
Megan Hasz, 1:10:13
Kellyn Taylor, 1:10:16
Amy Davis-Green, 1:10:27
Katherine Izzo, 1:10:45
Carrie Ellwood, 1:10:47
Anne-Marie Blaney, 1:10:54
Amber Zimmerman, 1:10:58
Tristin Colley, 1:11:21
Annamaria Kostarellis, 1:11:22
Jessica McClain, 1:12:05
Samantha Drop, 1:13:33
Veronica Eder, 1:13:46
Danielle Jordan, 1:14:05
Tayler Tuttle, 1:14:13
Ashley Heidenrich, 1:14:45
Tessa Barrett, 1:14:37
Patricia Terry, 1:14:58
Skylar Boogerd, 1:15:19
Ryann Helmers, 1:15:32
Nicole Lane, 1:16:21
Madeline Block, 1:16:26
Lucy Dobbs, 1:16:41
Kir Selert, 1:22:25
Gabi Rooker, Debut
Rebecca Schmitt, Debut
Elizabeth Chikotas, Debut
Amanda Beach, Debut
Alyssa Bloomquist, Debut
Tabor Hemming, Debut
Piper Atnip, Debut
MEN –
Leonard Korir, 59:52
Teshome Mekonen, 1:00:02
Hillary Bor, 1:00:20
Biya Simbassa, 1:00:37
Andrew Colley, 1:00:47
Alex Maier, 1:00:51
Clayton Young, 1:00:52
Reed Fischer, 1:00:47
Ryan Ford, 1:00:59
Frank Lara, 1:01:00
Joe Klecker, 1:01:06
Sydney Gidabuday, 1:01:09
Daniel Mesfun, 1:01:13
Nico Montanez, 1:01:13
Shadrack Kipchirchir, 1:01:16
Matthew Richtman, 1:01:20
Afewerki Zeru, 1:01:21
Futsum Zienasellassie, 1:01:21
Colin Mickow, 1:01:41
Patrick Smyth, 1:02:01
Robert Miranda, 1:02:09
Isai Rodriguez, 1:02:20
Jacob Thomson, 1:02:26
Jason Weitzel, 1:02:28
Joel Reichow, 1:02:30
Ryan Johnson, 1:02:31
Nathan Martin, 1:02:36
Anthony Raftis, 1:02:46
Colin Bennie, 1:02:46
Aidan Reed, 1:02:49
Joseph Trojan, 1:02:50
Ahmed Muhumed, 1:03:15
Collin Buck, 1:03:17
Habtamu Cheney, 1:03:19
Nadir Yusuf, 1:03:23
Jackson Siddall, 1:03:24
Jack Mastandrea, 1:03:42
Ben Olson, 1:03:43
Tyler Day, 1:03:48
Nicholas Hauger, 1:03:49
Thomas Brady, 1:03:55
Jacob Bertelsen, 1:04:12
Andrew Kaye, 1:04:14
Tai Smith, 1:04:45
Blake Buysse, 1:05:02
Cole Hoff, 1:05:35
Thomas Madden, 1:05:41
Micah Meindertsma, 1:05:49
Brian Masterson, 1:05:50
Cameron Bensley, 1:06:54
Hosava Kretzmann, 1:06:55
Riley Nedrow, Debut
Robert Swoboda, Debut
Christopher Maxon, Debut
Brandon Olden, Debut
Evans Kibet, Debut
