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News23 Apr 1998


McKiernan and Pinto favourites for London Marathon

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Despite this being just her second competition run over the distance, Ireland's Catherina McKiernan starts 8/11 favourite for Sunday's London Marathon. This might have seemed optimistic for the four times runner-up in the world cross country championships, who came in a disappointing seventh in Turin last year and 13th in Cape Town the year before, until last September, when the 28-year-old Irish athlete clocked the fastest ever debut performance in the Berlin Marathon: 2:23:44. This year, she ran the fifth fastest ever half-marathon time (third fastest this year) in Lisbon with a mark of 67:50 on 15 March - just 18 seconds slower than the 29 March performance of Tegla Loroupe (KEN) in The Hague and 21 seconds short of South African Elana Meyer's Kyoto half marathon time of 67:29.

Now, with Tegla Loroupe's sensational new world best of 2:20:47 in Rotterdam on 19 April, record fever is back and McKiernan is being heralded as a possible for a new world best. Race organisers had even contemplated giving her male pace-makers, even though the London marathon is run in two separate events for men and women, with the women's race starting half an hour before the men's event, but this possibility has now been excluded after a consensus against their inclusion among competitors.McKiernan will be facing a strong challenge from the defending title holder Joyce Chepchumba (KEN) and Britain's Liz McColgan and Marian Sutton - twice winner of the Chicago Marathon. World Champion Hiromi Suzuki (JPN) has had to withdraw through injury.

Portugal's Antonio Pinto will be defending his London Marathon title on Sunday and his excellent current form has led the pundits to predict that he could well go under the existing world best of 2:6:50, set by Belayneh Dinsamo (ETH) ten years ago.

Last year, Pinto set a new best mark for the London Marathon of 2:07:55 and for a few days owned the world best in the half marathon  with the 59:43 he ran in Lisbon on 15 March - only to have Kenya's Paul Tergat knock 26 seconds off the mark in the Stramilano on 4 April. In London he will be facing some of the world's greatest, though, in the shape of Josiah Thugwane of South Africa - Olympic Champion in Atlanta, Spanish arch rival and world champion Abel Anton and Kenya's Elijah Lagat, winner of last year's Berlin Marathon. All of these have clocked better marathon performances than  Pinto's best in the past.

London Marathon web site

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