Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot defends his title at the 111th Boston Marathon (© Getty Images)
Boston, USAThings got a whole lot easier this week for Robert Cheruiyot in his quest to be the first man to win the Boston Marathon four times since Bill Rodgers did it in 1980.
Monday’s BAA Boston Marathon is an IAAF Gold Label Road Race.
On Thursday, Patrick Ivuti, Cheruiyot’s main rival, pulled out of the race after suffering from a severe bout of malaria. Ivuti was the man who stopped Cheruiyot’s three-Marathon win streak back in October at the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon, and his departure from the field means that Cheruiyot can exhale, and get back down to business.
“Robert was really scared of Ivuti,” said Cheruiyot’s agent Federico Rosa. “I think now he is more relaxed.”
Ivuti’s departure also means that the Boston men’s field on Monday will in many ways mirror the U.S. women’s Marathon trials on Sunday. Sunday, it is Deena Kastor and everyone else. Monday, it will be Robert Cheruiyot and everyone else.
Cheruiyot, the reigning World Marathon Majors champ, is looking to join Rodgers and Gerard Cote as a four-time winner and in the process pull away from fellow countryman Cosmas N’Deti - who won the race three times in the mid-1990s - in the Boston record books. Clarence De Mar has the most wins in Boston: seven.
“Robert is such a great champion,” Rodgers said. “He, Lel and Gebreslassie are the best three Marathon runners in the world. Today it is harder and harder to keep winning, but he’s dead serious when it comes to racing.”
Despite favourite status, Cheruiyot will have company
That’s not to say that Cheruiyot will be running a time trial. Expect the Boston course record holder (2:07:14 in 2006) to draw plenty of company from fellow countryman Shadrack Kiplagat (2:07:53 in Amsterdam, 2007) and James Kwambai (last year’s runner-up) as well as Ethiopians Gashaw Asfaw (2:08:03 in Paris, 2006) and Yirefu Birhanu (2:09:01 in Seoul, 2007), and Morocco’s Abderrahhime Bouramdane (2:08:20 in Seoul, 2007).
Kwambai, in particular, said he will keep an eye on Cheruiyot, especially through the Newton Hills, then bide his time and wait to strike. “I will not go on the hills, but after the hills,” said Kwambai who trains with Cheruiyot. “If you can go there it will make a big difference.”
Cheruiyot, for his part, seemed little concerned about the competition. In fact, at the Friday press conference he was kind of already looking ahead - to next year. “If I win, I still need another one,” he said with a smile. “I know myself.”
Cheruiyot is lucky to be in Boston in the first place. He survived the violent tribal conflict back home by fleeing his base in Eldoret to train in Namibia for five weeks. “Eldoret, Namibia, Eldoret,” Rosa said when explaining Cheruiyot’s training venues this winter. “It was really quite dangerous.”
A win by Cheruiyot on what he called “the toughest Marathon course in the world” could also nab him a coveted place on the Kenyan Olympic Marathon team, presumably joining Martin Lel and Samuel Wanjiru, who went 1-2 at the Flora London Marathon last week. But none of that is etched in stone, and in that respect Cheruiyot will be racing on faith.
“I have no idea [about the selection process in Kenya],” said Rosa. “There is no guarantee on Lel and Wanjiru yet.”
Grigoryeva primed for defence - Women’s race
Defending champion Lidiya Grigoryeva of Russia will also be running with her country’s selector’s watching. But first of all is the race at hand.
She comes to Boston in a tenuous position - last year’s winner but the seventh woman on the depth charts when it comes to marathon PRs. Two-time NYC winner Jelena Prokopcuka (2:22:56 at Osaka, 2005) of Latvia heads the list, with 2006 Boston winner Rita Jeptoo of Kenya (2:23:38) a few notches behind. Of particular interest are two Ethiopians who will be running their second marathons of 2008: 23-year old Askale Tafa Magarsa (2:23:23 at Dubai, 2008) and Dire Tune (2:24:40 at Houston, 2008). We shall see how fast times on flat courses translate to the hills of Boston.
One thing is for certain. The race will be different than last year, when Girgoryeva won in a slow-ish 2:29:18.
“The race will be much faster,” said Grigoyeva of the windy and rainy conditions on 2007. “The Kenyans and Ethiopians will push the pace from the beginning of the race.”
Look, then, for Grigoryeva to keep up, then make a race of if later in the race, after they come off the hills.
“She [Grigoryeva] likes to stay in the back of the pack and then take chances in the last 10K,” said her manager Andrey Baranov.
Dave Kuehls for the IAAF
