Dream
Debut for Noah Bor
Pat
Butcher for Athens Marathon
4 November
2001 - Athens, Greece -
Noah Bor had a dream
debut at the marathon on Sunday,
when he won the Athens Classic on the
original course from the village of
Marathon to Athens. Originally intended
as the pacemaker for his more
experienced colleagues, the 27 year old
Kenyan repeated the surprise of the
recent Berlin and Chicago marathons,
also won by Kenyan ‘rabbits’.
”I didn’t expect to win, I thought the
others would be too strong, but when
they weren’t coming at me after halfway,
I decided to go,” said Bor, whose elder
brother Simon is a 2.08 performer.
Frederick Cheruyiot was understandably
less ecstatic in second place. “I
thought he was supposed to drop out at
30k,” said Bor’s compatriot. “I was
feeling strong, but I couldn’t catch him
at the end”.
Less of a dream was the weather. The
event is being upgraded in the run-up to
the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, but
someone forgot to placate the weather
gods. The first rain in the Athens area
for seven months was torrential at
times, and along with the strong winds,
kept the winner’s time down to two
hours, 19 minutes, 26 seconds, half a
minute ahead of his colleagues,
Cheruyiot and Elias Chebet.
The irony wasn’t lost on Sonja
Krolik-Oberem, who won the women’s race
in 2.36.15. Fifth in the recent world
championships in Edmonton, having set a
personal best of 2.26.13 this year, the
German had said earlier this week that
she had come to Athens looking for warm
weather. After a rain-lashing on an
already tough course, in eight degrees
centigrade, she said, “Those are the
hardest conditions I’ve ever
experienced. It was hell out there”.
Nevertheless, this is one of the
preparations for the Olympics that is
going to plan. The entry doubled this
year, with over half of the 1600 runners
coming from abroad, the largest number
(227) from the USA, a measure of the
lure of the race’s history, considering
New York was on the same day.
MEN
place bib name country time prize(USD)
1 148 Noah BOR Kenya 2.19.26 $5000
2 156 Frederick CHERUIYOT Kenya 2.19.52
$4000
3 153 Elias CHEBET Kenya 2.19.59 $3000
4 157 Hideaki NUMAJIRI Japan 2.20.03
$2000
5 154 Josephat CHEMJOR Kenya 2.20.29
$1000
6 155 Onesmus MUTISYA Kenya 2.21.58 $
500
7 1 Nikos POLIAS Greece 2.23.58
8 150 Julius RUTTO Kenya 2.24.44
9 122 Gerasimos KOKOTOS Greece 2.32.16
10 76 Panagiotis IOANNIDIS Greece
2.32.35
WOMEN
1 351 Sonja KROLIK-OBEREM Germany
2.36.15 $5000
2 353 Albina IVANOVA Russia 2.40.18
$4000
3 354 Svetlana PONOMARENKO Russia
2.46.58 $3000
4 251 Giorgia ABATZIDOU Greece 2.48.37
$2000
5 1624 Kumiko FUKOZAWA Japan 2.53.32
$1000
