Catherine Ndereba crosses the finish to win the 2005 Boston Marathon (© Getty Images)
Defending champion Catherine Ndereba of Kenya in 2:25:13 became the first four-time women's winner of the B.A.A. Boston Marathon yesterday (18 April), so fulfilling the high pre-race expectations, coming from behind to overtake Ethiopia's Elfenesh Alemu, who she had also beaten into second place last year.
Ethiopia’s Hailu Negussie in a time of 2:11:45 won the men's race.
WOMEN
The withdrawal of several contenders, the most recent being Eri Hayakawa of Japan (2:28:11 PB - 2004) who was unable to start due to a high fever, cut the elite women’s field down to 55 contenders.
The initial ‘push and shove’ stage after the gun saw several lead changes before Lyubov Morgunova of Russia took definitive control of the situation and got clearly in front, leading the pack at the 1-mile mark. At the 5K split, Morgunova’s lead had become substantial, with veteran marathoner Nuta Olaru of Romania and last year’s runner-up, Ethiopian Elfenesh Alemu in hot pursuit 7 seconds behind. A pack of four, headed by defending champion Catherine Ndereba fell a full 25 seconds behind.
In her post-race comments, World champion Ndereba, 32, who had won the Boston race in 2000, 2001 and 2004, would mention that throughout the race her strategy was to set her own pace based on how she felt rather than on the tactics of others.
Soon thereafter, Olaru and Alemu, giving every impression of a well-oiled tandem, took over from a tiring Morgunova and started to build a lead of their own. The effort to catch the Russian took the pair – for the first and only time in the race – under Margaret Okayo’s 2:20:43 course record pace (minus six seconds at the 4 mile mark). Things slowed down a bit, but the gaps remained the same, as Alemu and Olaru worked diligently upfront, with Morgunova in a position to strike some 10 -15 seconds behind. Ndereba for her part headed the chasing pack which y the 15K mark had fallen a formidable 1:11 behind the leaders.
Alemu and Olaru seemed fully in control at midpoint (13.1 miles: 1:12:11), only a slight distance away from the courageously defiant Morgunova, but enjoying a cushion of one minute 20 seconds over the pack led by Ndereba. Then the contest took a dramatic turn.
Sustained surge closes gap
Ndereba, with Ethiopian national record holder Gete Wami for company, shaved a full 30 seconds off the leader’s advantage over a 4-kilometre stretch, passing the 25K mark only 50 seconds behind than the leaders, and then came time for the protagonist to take center stage alone. Losing Wami in the process, Ndereba kept chomping away at the lead, cutting it to a mere 28 seconds by the 30K mark (1:43:19). At that point, she was in 2nd place and in clear view of Alemu, who had earlier dropped the quickly fading Olaru. The latter, having been demoted so suddenly, let Wami and Morgunova pass her in a hurry and would end up in 10th place (2:37:37).
Then came Heartbreak Hill. The elevation could have hardly been as unnerving to the leader as, looking over her shoulder, the sight of Ndereba in dogged close pursuit. The Kenyan caught her adversary at the top of the Hill, but Alemu managed to hang on and stay with the leader for another ten minutes or so.
However, ‘Catherine the Great’, as she is reverently referred to in Boston, was not to be denied on this gorgeous afternoon. Throwing in three consecutive miles at 5:24, 5:23 and 5:19 (!) between the 35K and the 40K marks, the advantage of 1:07 that that surge gave Ndereba was enough to allow her to a comfortably cruise home.
Heavy legs are lightened by victory
Ndereba’s fourth title was an appropriate reward for a gutsy effort backed by patient adjustments to the pre-existing race strategy.
“First of all it felt like my legs were heavy,” confirmed the winner. “I didn’t like to take a chance of pushing it. I kept on doing it, running it easy. I kept on trying to push the pace. And towards the finish I just felt great.”
Even though the time of 2:25:13 was the second slowest in Ndereba’s four triumphs here, she savoured every moment of her post-race meditation.
She later revealed what went through her mind at that point: “It feels very good and I thank God for the history I made. It’s only because God was on my side.”
Far from appearing exhausted, she kept striding some past the finish line in a graceful display of athletic prowess. Then, as the realisation of a ‘job well done’ came over her, she knelt in silent praise, then stretched the tightening muscles of her right leg before going over to husband Anthony for a long hug.
Meanwhile, Alemu crossed the line in second – for the second year in a row – in a time of 2:27:03. By then, Ndereba had donned the champion’s laurel wreath and was awarded the trophy to the sounds of the Kenyan national anthem, a lone tear rolling down her left cheek.
Conservative pace pays off for Genovese
It was not until the music was over that Italy’s veteran Bruna Genovese, who picked off fading competitors one by one while working her way from 9th position up onto the podium, crossed the line in 2:29:51 to claim third place.
It was Genovese’s conservative tactics that paid off at the end: “(Ndereba) started to run too fast for me, so I had to run my own race. Because it is hot, it is better run slowly at the beginning.” At the same time Alemu, who employed quite a different strategy, had her reasons for going out briskly: “Actually (it) was not a strategy. The pace was a normal pace. And that’s why I went out as quickly as I did.”
Despite her clearly aggressive, win-oriented game plan, Alemu seemed to have taken her second consecutive runner-up performance in her stride: “I am not disappointed because there is winning and there is not winning. It happens. I’m not worried about that”.
The next three spots went to the Russian contingent, led by Svetlana Zakharova in 4th (2:31:34). Madina Biktagirova claimed the master’s title – and fifth overall – in 2:32:41, and Lyubov Morgunova, staving off the effects of a scorching start, managed to hang on to sixth in 2:33:24.
MEN
While Ndereba successfully defended her crown in the women’s open field, the men’s 2004 champion, Timothy Cheragat, fell victim to a vicious charge by Ethiopia’s Hailu Negussie in the late stage of the race and arrived in Copley Square a distant sixth.
Stephen Kiogora of Kenya jumped out to an early lead, only to have his heels cooled by Khalid El Boumlili of Morocco who responded to the charge and brought the rest of the pack with him. Kiogora and El Boumlili, apparently not content with the status quo, kept pushing the pace and found themselves 14 seconds clear of the chasing pack at the 10K mark. The deficit had grown to 23 seconds by the 15K mark, at which point the 2003 Boston winner Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot staged an unsuccessful attempt to run the pair down.
El Boumlili and Kiogora maintained a considerable advantage over the pursuers until about the halfway mark (13.1 miles - 1:06:13). Then, before the 25K split, they were swallowed by the pack. Several minutes later, Cherigat took charge, taking Ethiopian Hailu Negussie, as well as Kenyan compatriots Benson Cherono, Benjamin Kipchumba and Wilson Onsare with him. The surge effectively subdued American Alan Culpepper, who found himself some 6 seconds behind the leaders at the 30K mark.
Two surge tactic
Heartbreak Hill separated the men from the boys, so to speak, as Negussie, charging with Cheruiyot on his heels, distanced himself from Onsare and Cherono, who were running side by side some 10 seconds behind, and the defending champion Cherigat who was, 20 seconds adrift. Culpepper seemingly tenaciously hung onto sixth place, while Kipchumba fell back considerably.
With leading runners past the crest of Heartbreak Hill, then came surge number two. As Negussie later confirmed, “my second move made a difference for me to win the marathon. My second (surge) breaking (me) away.” Negussie, his somewhat unorthodox style never unraveling, crossed the finish line in 2:11:45. The 27 year-old made history by claiming the first Boston wreath for Ethiopia since Abebe Mekonnen won in 1989. Negussie, whose PB is 2:08:16 (2002), has now run a total of eight international marathons since his debut in 2002, with three wins to his credit.
‘Slow’ start plays into Ethiopian’s hands
Negussie, who finished 5th here last year, took full advantage that experience, and confirmed: “For this year, I had a long thought and I practiced and day and night I was dreaming of winning the Boston Marathon, and I did what I was dreaming.” he said through an interpreter, beaming with delight.
The winner also partially credited the Kenyans’ strategy with his victory. Their mistake, he said, was in not going out fast enough. “Had they gone a little faster,” noted Negussie “they could have won the race.”
Wilson Onsore, who was always in Negussie’s sight but never in contention, hung on to second in 2:12:21, while 20-year old Benson Cherono managed to keep composure in ‘no-man’s land’ and claimed the last remaining spot on the podium in 2:12:48. Cherono was succinct in evaluating his first Boston experience: “This is my second marathon, the race was very competitive. I had a problem with my hamstring. It was a very good course.”
Alan Culpepper, who passed last year’s champion Cherigat after the Hill, made history of its own by finishing fourth in 2:13:39. Culpepper, who lives and trains in Colorado, is the best American finisher in Boston since 1987. The 12th place Athens finisher praised the spectators for helping him reach the finish line. "The last four miles, I wouldn't have been able to make it without the support of the crowds.”
Denis Fedulov for the IAAF
Results
MEN
1. Hailu Negussie ETH 2:11:45
2. Wilson Onsare KEN 2:12:21
3. Benson Cherono KEN 2:12:48
4. Alan Culpepper USA 2:13:39
5. Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot KEN 2:14:30
6. Timothy Cherigat KEN 2:15:19
7. Benjamin Kipchumba KEN 2:15:26
8. Andrew Letherby AUS 2:16:38
9. Mohamed Ouaadi FRA 2:16:41
10. Peter Gilmore 2:17:32
WOMEN
1. Catherine Ndereba KEN 2:25:13
2. Elfenesh Alemu ETH 2:27:03
3. Bruna Genovese ITA 2:29:51
4. Svetlana Zakharova RUS 2:31:34
5. Madina Biktagirova RUS 2:32:41
6. Lyubov Morgunova RUS 2:33:24
7. Shitaye Gemechu ETH 2:33:51
8. Zhor El Kamch MOR 2:36:54
9. Mina Ogawa JPN 2:37:34
10. Nuta Olaru ROM 2:37:37
