Cheruiyot repeats, Grigoryeva surprises in windy Boston Marathon
Monday 16 April 2007
Boston, USA - Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot (KEN) repeated in 2:14:13, and Lidia Grigoryeva (RUS) won her first Boston Marathon in 2:29:18 at the 111th running of the Boston Marathon today. Both times were the slowest winning times in recent memory, as the runners were met with strong headwinds and rain squalls throughout the point-to-point course.
A slow beginning
Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot defends his title at the 111th Boston Marathon
(Getty Images)
While a coastal storm swept through the region on Sunday night (15), soaking the city and leaving large puddles on the course, much of the rain had finished by this (Monday) morning. The winds remained high, however, and in the face of the athletes running east into Boston.
The elite women, who started 25 minutes before the mass start, spent most of the early going sorting out who would bear the brunt of that wind. Latvia’s Jelena Prokopcuka, the 2006 runner-up and two-time New York City Marathon champion, wound up doing the wind-blocking chores most often.
“No runner likes the rain and wind,” said Prokopcuka after the race. “I tried to make the pace, but nobody supported me. I was disappointed, because it’s hard work to run into the wind. I had to run alone and make the pace, because I don’t like jogging, and when I was behind someone else, I was just jogging.”
General view of women’s elite race - Boston Marathon
(Getty Images)
Indeed, after an initial (downhill) 5 km split of 17:14, the pace for the lead pack of eight slowed to 17:37 for the second 5 km, a plodding 18:44 for the third, and finally 19:35 for the fourth as the pack approached halfway. Defending champion Rita Jeptoo of Kenya spent some time in the lead at this point, but slowed almost to a walk while weaving across the course attempting to force someone else to make the pace. Reluctantly, Prokopcuka took over once again.
Grigoryeva has closing speed
After halfway, the pace picked up again, and eventually the pack began to thin. USA’s 2006 London Marathon champion Deena Kastor was one of the first to go; afterward, she blamed stomach cramps and admitted that, once dropped, she had lost a minute stopping in a restroom beside the course. On returning to the course, Kastor was able to work through the remains of the pack to finish fifth in 2:35:09. Kastor also won the national marathon championship, which was run concurrently.
Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot ahead of James Kwambai and Stephen Kiogora - Boston Marathon
(Victah Sailer)
Meanwhile, Prokopcuka was doggedly cutting down the lead pack. By 25 km, only four women were still in contention, including Prokopcuka, Jeptoo, Mexico’s Madai Perez, and Grigoryeva. Jeptoo was the next to go as the pack climbed through Boston’s infamous hills. As they began the descent through Brookline and into Boston, Perez, Prokopcuka, and Grigoryeva began trying in earnest to run each other into the ground.
“At 35 km, I understood that I had the power to win the race,” said Grigoryeva. “I had to slow some for the wind, but from there I knew I could do it.” Grigoryeva was a two-time Olympian for Russia at 10,000m, finishing eighth in that event in Athens, and her track speed would be vital today.
Prokopcuka concurred. “The most important part of the race was the ‘Break Heart’ (Heartbreak) Hill, and the last 7 km. It’s hard to run them well when your legs don’t have the strength left.”
Perez, too, could not shake the other two: “I tried to push earlier, to see if the others were weak, but I only discovered that the race would be defined by the last mile.”
Grigoryeva pulled away with just over a mile remaining, winning in the slowest time since Lisa Weidenbach in 1985. Prokopcuka held on for second in 2:29:58, her second consecutive runner-up performance here; Perez was third in 2:30:16. Jeptoo took fourth in 2:33:08, over two minutes ahead of Kastor in fifth.
Grigoryeva won US$100,000 for the victory.
Huge pack for the men’s race
The list of men who have won three or more of the 111 runnings of the Boston Marathon is very short, but for the first time since Kenya’s Cosmas Ndeti’s 1995 win, there is a new name on it. Cheruiyot, coached by World Record holder Paul Tergat, won here in 2003, but then went two years without a win (including a fifth-place finish in 2005) before setting the course record of 2:07:14 here last year.
The men’s race started nearly as slowly as the women, with Cheruiyot burying himself within an immense pack of as many as forty runners in the early going. By halfway that pack was thinned to a more manageable - but still large - sixteen, and faces like Cheruiyot’s, 2006 pacemaker Benjamin Maiyo, and 2006 New York runner-up Stephen “Baba” Kiogora were showing toward the front. By 35 km, the pack was down to seven, all Kenyans excepting Ethiopian Teferi Wodajo. “At 35 km, that is where you start a marathon,” said Cheruiyot after the race.
By then, also, the pack was cresting the hills, with a downhill roll into Boston and the finish. It was James Kwambai who pulled Cheruiyot out of the pack and reduced the race to a duel. Kwambai had only two marathons on his record, both wins in 2006: Brescia in 2:10:20 and Beijing in 2:10:36. Boston would be his slowest marathon, and the pace so far had been well within his ability.
“Today I am very happy with the weather,” reported Kwambai, who found the occasional sprays of rain refreshing. “I wish it had been a flood, so I could run faster.”
Decision at a water station
With that point of view, it might be considered ironic that it was water which eventually gave Cheruiyot the upper hand. As they passed the final fluid station, near the 25 mile mark, Kwambai ran close to the tables and picked up a cup. Cheruiyot did not, and swiftly opened a 15-metre gap on the younger marathoner. After that, the race was over.
“I was concerned that others may come back,” said Kwambai to explain his failure to cover Cheruiyot’s move, and his caution was justified. After Cheruiyot’s 2:14:13, the slowest winning time since 1977, Kwambai ran 2:14:33, with Kiogora just 14 seconds back in 2:14:47, James Koskei fourth in 2:15:05, and Wodajo fifth in 2:15:06. All five were on Boyleston Street, the final quarter-mile, at the same time.
[B]Cheruiyot, however, didn’t check his lead. “When he is chasing the antelope, the lion doesn’t look back,” he said. “He has to eat.”[/b]
Cheruiyot, whose ability to compete at the highest level was in question following his bizarre fall at the finish line of the 2006 Chicago Marathon, was elated to return to victory in Boston.
“The race was very tough. Few people will do what I have done; I think maybe if I win next year, I will have to die.” He claimed not to have been bothered by the headaches which have dogged him since Chicago; “I was thinking maybe there was a little pain at 30 km, but it was nothing.”
Cheruiyot also won US$100,000 for the victory. With three victories in the World Marathon Majors series, his lead in that series is almost unapproachable, and victory there would award him a further US$500,000.
Parker Morse for the IAAF
Results
Men
- Robert K Cheruiyot KEN 2:14:13
- James Kwambai KEN 2:14:33
- Stephen Kiogora KEN 2:14:47
- James Koskei KEN 2:15:05
- Teferi Wodajo ETH 2:15:06
- Benjamin Maiyo KEN 2:16:04
- Ruggero Pertile ITA 2:16:08
- Peter M. Gilmore USA 2:16:41
Women
1 . Lidiya Grigoryeva RUS 2:29:18
2. Jelena Prokopcuka LAT 2:29:58
3. Madai Perez MEX 2:30:16
4. Rita Jeptoo KEN 2:33:08
5. Deena Kastor USA 2:35:09
6. Robe Tola Guta ETH 2:36:29
7. Lyubov Denisova RUS 2:38:00
8. Alice Chelangat KEN 2:38:07