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Elite Field Announced For 2011 Boston Marathon

BOSTON (CBS) - John Hancock Financial announced the elite field for the 115th Boston Marathon on Thursday.

Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot and Teyba Erkesso will be back to defend their crowns, but will have competition from one of the fastest and deepest men's and women's field in Boston history.

Cheruiyot, who ran a course record 2:05:22 in 2010, will be challenged by fellow Kenyan's Geoffrey Mutai, Gilbert Yegon, and Evans Cheruiyot.

Top American Ryan Hall will run his third Boston Marathon. He finished third and fourth the past two years, setting the record for fastest time by an American in 2010 at 2:08:41.

On the women's side, Teyba Erkesso and Tatyana Pushkareva will have another chance to bring it down to the wire. Erkesso beat out Pushkareva by just three seconds in 2010. It was the third straight year the women's race had been decided by three seconds or less.

American Kara Goucher will return to run her second Boston Marathon after taking 2010 off to start a family. She will be joined by Desiree Davilla, the fastest American in 2010 after running the Chicago Marathon in 2:26:20.

WBZ-TV is the only local station with live wire-to-wire coverage of the 2011 Boston Marathon on Monday, April 18th.

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