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Timothy Cherigat is the winner of the 108th Boston Marathon. While temperatures

soared up to nearly 30° Celsius the 27 year-old Kenyan kept cool and

triumphed in convincing style in 2:10:37. It was Cherigat’s greatest

success so far while it was a second triumph for the group of Kenyans coached

by Dieter Hogen, Tom Ratcliffe and Godfrey Kiprotich within 32 hours. A day

before Evans Rutto had won the London Marathon in an identical convincing

style.

Catherine Ndereba was the fastest women in Boston. The marathon world

champion from Kenya clocked 2:24:27. Elfenesh Alemu (Ethiopia) finished second

in 2:24:43. It was the third Boston win for Catherine Ndereba after 2000 and

2001. Regarding the conditions the Kenyan clocked an excellent time and it was

a perfect test for the Olympic Marathon in Athens in late August. Ndereba and

Cherigat each earned $ 80,000 for their wins.

20,344 runners had entered this year’s 108th Boston Marathon. 17,950

started in Hopkinton while 16,743 reached the finish line in central Boston.

Clearly finishing times were relatively slow due to the heat.

Because of the weather the pace was conservative in the first part of the

race. As the traditional starting time in Boston is 12 noon temperatures were

already above 25 ° Celsius at the start. Eight runners passed half way in

65:30 minutes. Among them were seven Kenyans and Hailu Negussie. The Ethiopian

finally finished fifth in 2:17:30.

Defending champion Robert Cheruiyot was among the leaders at this stage of

the race. But that was soon to change. On the next 10 k stretch four runners

lost contact. Among them was Cheruiyot who dropped out later. Four Kenyans

reached 30 k in 1:32:52: Timothy Cherigat, Rodgers Rop, Martin Lel and Robert

Cheboror.

Finally it was down to a duel between Rop and Cherigat – it ended with

a knockout for one and a triumph for the other. When Timothy Cherigat pushed

the pace it became soon obvious that only this man could be the winner. While

Cherigat changed pace in the hills Rop could not stand the speed any longer.

The Kenyan who had won the Boston and New York Marathon races in 2002 later ran

into such big problems that he even dropped out. Meanwhile Cherigat continued

in convincing style while Robert Cheboror came in second in 2:11.49. Martin Lel

was third in 2:13:38. Fourth place went to Stephen Kiogora (2:14:34) who is

another of Dieter Hogen’s runners.

“During my first two marathons I had problems because I was ill. That

is why I prepared very well for this one because I wanted to make sure that I

would be strong. I had no problems during the race”, Timothy Cherigat

said. “May be I could have run faster. But this is difficult to tell

because of the weather conditions.”

Catherine Ndereba experienced a much tougher race. Crossing the finish the

was so exhausted that she could not walk any longer and sank to the surface. It

had been a fierce fight until the very last mile of the race before she finally

got ahead of Elfenesh Alemu. The Ethiopian ran a great race in the heat

finishing second with just 16 seconds behind. “It was a really hard race

that hurt me in the final stages”, Ndereba said. Regarding the conditions

she ran a great time of 2:24:27.

For the first time in Boston history women finished before the men. They had

started 29 minutes earlier to run their own race. It was Elfenesh Alemu who

increased the pace in the early stages of the race. The wife of the Olympic

Marathon Champion Gezahegne Abera (Ethopia), who had dropped out of the London

Marathon with an injury the day before, passed 10 k in 35:15. She continued

running in the lead and had an advantage of seven seconds at half way

(1:12:21). Catherine Ndereba was second at this stage, but managed to catch up

with Alemu on the next few miles.

“I ran my own race today”, Ndereba later explained. Still she

was not able to get rid of Alemu until the final stages of the marathon. The

Ethiopian was working hard at front as well but Ndereba hold on. Even at the 40

k mark (2:16:57) they were running together. It was then on the very last mile

of the race that Ndereba was able to push the pace again although suffering of

cramps. Finally Alemu could not respond and was beaten. “The will to win

was decisive today”, Catherine Ndereba said. It was a great test for

Athens.

Results, Men:

1. Timothy Cherigat KEN 2:10:37 2. Robert Cheboror KEN 2:11:49 3. Martin Lel

KEN 2:13:38 4. Stephen Kiogora KEN 2:14:34 5. Hailu Negussie ETH 2:17:30 6.

Benjamin Kimutai KEN 2:17:45 7. Joshua Kipkemboi KEN 2:18:23 8. Andrew Letherby

AUS 2:19:31

Women:

1. Catherine Ndereba KEN 2:24:27 2. Elfenesh Alemu ETH 2:24:43 3. Olivera

Jevtic SCG 2:27:34 4. Jelena Prokopcuka LAT 2:30:16 5. Nuta Olaru ROM 2:30:44

6. Lyubov Denisowa RUS 2:31:17 7. Malgorzata Sobanska POL 2:32:23 8. Victoria

Klimina RUS 2:33:20