NEW YORK, NY (November 3, 2007) - Ryan Hall won the U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon, earning a spot on the 2008 Olympic team in Beijing, China. It will be the first Olympic team for the 25 year old Hall, who ran a strong second half of the race to win by over 2 minutes.

Although Hall was running only his second marathon, he was considered one of the favorites among a field regarded as one of the strongest ever assembled in an American championship race. The race started out slowly as the favorites jockeyed for position, but it was not long before a group of 5 runners broke away from the pack.

Hall, Abdi Abdirahman, Meb Keflezighi, Dan Browne, and Dathan Ritzenhein ran as a pack until Hall made a decisive move around mile 17. Running alone for the final 9 miles of the race, Hall looked extremely relaxed and under control.

With a mile to go Hall realized that his Olympic dream was about to come true, and he spent the last few minutes of the race celebrating with the masses of people who had turned out in Central Park to watch this historic race. Even with no one to push him to the line, Hall still finished in an Olympic Trials record time of 2:09:02 on a very challenging course.

Hall's Team Running USA teammate Meb Keflezighi was hoping to make his third Olympic team but was hampered in the latter stages of the race by a recurring calf injury that was aggravated by the hills in Central Park. Keflezighi held on to finish 8th in 2:15:09.

While Hall will focus on the marathon at next summer's Olympics, Keflezighi plans on turning his attention to the track. He hopes to qualify for the U.S. team in the 10,000m, an event he ran at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.

It was not a good day for Michael McKeeman, who was competing in his first Olympic Trials. McKeeman struggled from the start and finished in 73rd place with a time of 2:26:12. In January McKeeman will resume his role as Deena Kastor's training partner as she prepares for the women's Olympic Marathon Trials in April.