Honolulu Marathon – News – Reigning Champion Gourley To Battle Kessler & Nuguse At Kalakaua Merrie Mile

REIGNING CHAMPION GOURLEY TO BATTLE KESSLER & NUGUSE AT KALAKAUA MERRIE MILE
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2023 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved – Used with permision.

(15-Nov) — After a terrific year where he won the British indoor and outdoor 1500-meter titles, earned a silver medal in the same discipline at the European Athletics Indoor Championships, and broke 3:50 at the famed Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games, Scotsman Neil Gourley has just one more big goal on his plate for 2023: defend his title at the Kalakaua Merrie Mile in Honolulu on Saturday, December 9.  That’s going to be a tall order for the friendly Scotsman who will have to beat reigning world road mile champion and world record holder Hobbs Kessler and North American mile record holder Yared Nuguse among others.

“Having our defending champion race against the world record holder in the road mile and the American record holder for the mile on the track is a dream come true for our race,” said Jim Barahal, president of the Honolulu Marathon Association, the founders and organizers of the event which is held the day before the Honolulu Marathon.  “Even better, these men have a good chance of lowering the World Athletics record of 3:56.13 on the streets of Waikiki.  Our course record is 3:53.3 by Edward Cheserek of Kenya, so we know it’s fast.  We are ready with photo timing and a new World Athletics certification for our course.”

Gourley, 28, who lives and trains in Flagstaff, Ariz., under coach Stephen Haas, showed his mastery of tactics at last year’s race where the elite men had to overcome a 29-second head start given to the elite women.  The race has a unique chase format where the elite men chase the elite women and the $10,000 prize money purse is paid based on the overall order of finish, men and women combined.

Last year at the turnaround point on Kalakaua Avenue about 900 meters into the race, the men had made up about half the deficit.  As Gourley and the other men approached the finish they knew they were going to swallow up the lead women and get into the prize money positions.

“It felt weird passing a whole different field, but this event is just really fun,” said Gourley, who clocked 3:56.1. and, as the first athlete to cross the finish line, got the $4,000 first prize.

For this year’s race Gourley, who represents Under Armour, said he might be a little short of fitness because he got a late start on the base phase of his training after a long track season.  But…