Press Release - Dallas Marathon - 12/9/15

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

  Dallas Marathon Announces Duo to Rio Relay sponsored by AT&T Pairings

Top Olympic hopefuls to vie head-to-head in two-person marathon relay on 
Dec. 13

DALLAS (Dec. 9, 2015) – Ten top Team USA hopefuls for the 2016 Summer 
Olympics are participating in the Duo to Rio Relay sponsored by AT&T – a 
two-person marathon relay challenge – on Dallas Marathon race day this 
Sunday, December 13. Race officials announced the pairings today:

Abdi Abdirahman    &       Deena Kastor

Sam Chelanga       &       Molly Huddle

Meb Keflezighi     &       Becky Wade

Luke Puskedra      &       Annie Bersagel

Jared Ward         &       Desi Linden

The five male-female teams will run head-to-head to determine which pair 
can complete the Dallas Marathon course the fastest; male runners will run 
the first 13.1 miles of the marathon course and handoff to the female 
competitors who will compete the second half marathon leg of the relay. All 
athletes participating in the Duo to Rio Relay sponsored by AT&T have 
previously qualified for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials. 

Abdirahman and Kastor enter the field with the deepest collective race 
experience, having represented Team USA at a combined seven Olympic Games.

Chelanga and Huddle are the reigning male and female champions in the USATF 
10 Mile. The duo represents a promising future in American distance 
running: Huddle, the 5,000m American record holder and a 2012 Olympian, and 
Chelanga, a two-time champion in the U.S. National 12K Race.

Dallas native Becky Wade is among the youngest female competitors qualified 
for the Olympic Trials; the 26-year-old local favorite that won her 
marathon debut in 2013 teams up with three-time Olympian and former Boston 
Marathon and New York City Marathon winner Keflezighi.  

Puskedra and Bersagel carry some of the fastest American marathon finishes 
into the Duo to Rio Relay sponsored by AT&T. Bersagel has the fifth fastest 
time by an American woman this year and Puskedra owns the fastest marathon 
finish by any American in 2015, having run 2:10:24 at the Chicago Marathon. 

Ward and Linden represent two of America’s top marathon runners in recent 
years. Linden was a 2012 Team USA Olympian and the first female American 
finisher at the 2015 Boston Marathon, and Ward is the reigning U.S. 
champion in the marathon.

The Duo to Rio Relay sponsored by AT&T is held as part of the 45th running 
of the Dallas Marathon, Half Marathon and Behringer Relay. For more 
information, visit dallasmarathon.com.

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