By John Connolly | Boston Herald

The men’s and women’s elite fields for Monday’s 113th edition of the Boston Marathon were bolstered yesterday with the addition of top respective contenders Tekeste Kebede and Elfenesh Alemu. Both hail from Ethiopia and both have a past association with the fabled Hopkinton-to-Boston trek.

Kebede, a 27-year-old native of Addis Ababa, ran Boston in 2007 and was in third place nearing the 25-mile mark in Brookline before succumbing to dehydration issues. Kebede has finished in the top three at six major marathons with a best time of 2:10:36 at January’s Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon in Tempe, Ariz.

Alemu, 33, of Arsi, has competed in three previous Boston races, finishing third in 2002, and second in both ’04 and ’05. Alemu has won two Japanese marathons, at Nagano (2:24:55 in 2000) and Tokyo (2:24:47 in ’03).

Championing 5K

While the marathon has attracted an official field of 26,400, the inaugural 5K partner race on Sunday will feature 4,000 runners.

Among the scheduled participants are three former Boston champions celebrating anniversaries of their victories: Norway’s Ingrid Kristiansen (20th anniversary, 1989), New Zealand’s Lorraine Moller (25th, 1984) and Ireland’s Neil Cusack (35th, 1974). . . .

Immediately following the 5K event, there will be a new series of four one-mile races for men’s and women’s elite athletes and high schoolers. Ian Dobson, a nine-time All-America and former Stanford University teammate of U.S. marathon hopeful Ryan Hall, has been added to the men’s mile field. Challengers include Rob Myers, a three-time U.S. National 1,500-meter champion, and Ireland’s two-time Olympian Alistair Cragg, a European Indoor Champion at 3,000 meters. Marblehead native Shalane Flanagan, who won a bronze medal at 10,000 meters in the Beijing Games, heads the women’s field with former Villanova star Carrie Tollefson, a prime threat.

Rodgers’ cause

Four-time Boston champion Bill Rodgers, who will be running as a member of Athletes For A Cure to raise awareness and funds for prostate cancer research, is a cancer survivor with a long family history of the disease. One family victim, great grandfather Daniel T. Molloy, was among the first Irishmen to graduate from Yale University in 1902. Molloy later became a Hartford policeman and worked as a gardener for literary great Mark Twain. . . .

Television and radio commentators should have oodles of fun if four-time champion and course record-holder Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot (2:07:14) and Frankfurt course record-holder (2:07:21) Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot – no relation – come running side-by-side down Boylston Street to the finish on Monday.