London, UK - Eager to continue his recent momentum, rising U.S. distance star Ryan Hall will contest his Marathon debut at the Flora London Marathon on 22 April.

At the Aramco Houston Half Marathon on 14 January, the 24-year-old became the first North American ever to run the 21.1 kilometre distance in under an hour with his 59:43 performance, beating the previous continental record, which had stood for 21 years, by 72 seconds. In the process he also soundly defeated Olympic Marathon silver medallist Meb Keflezighi.

Afterwards Hall announced that he was looking to make his Marathon debut in the spring to gain experience ahead of the U.S. Olympic Marathon trials to be held as part of the ING New York City Marathon in November.

“We are delighted that Ryan has chosen the Flora London Marathon to make his debut at the distance,” said London race director David Bedford. “Ryan has shown that he is a very exciting talent in superb form and he will be a valuable addition to the illustrious elite field we earlier announced in January.”

“It’s going to be really hard and I’m expecting it to be more challenging than anything I’ve ever done,” said Hall of his first marathon experience. “I’m just going to go out there and stick my nose in it.”

Hall has been in highly impressive form recently. He set a U.S. record of 57:54 for 20km when he finished 11th at the inaugural IAAF World Road Running Championships in Debrecen, Hungary, in October 2006, and in February he will defend his national 12Km Cross Country title which he won last year by 27 seconds.

Hall was the U.S. college champion at 5000m in 2005 and won a place on the USA team for the IAAF World Championships in Helsinki that year by finishing third at the national championships. He was a U.S. high school Mile champion while at school in Big Bear, California, and ran the third fastest ever 1500m by a U.S. high school student.

This year's high calibre London field includes Haile Gebrselassie, World record holder Paul Tergat, two-time World champion Jaouad Gharib, and Olympic champion Stefano Baldini.

Nicola Okey for the IAAF