Previews24 Apr 2009


Injured Lel pulls out of chase for third consecutive London Marathon title; greatest field ever is assembled - PREVIEW - UPDATED

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Samuel Wanjiru becomes the first Kenyan man to win an Olympic marathon title (© Getty Images)

London, UKIf you win the London Marathon, says Martin Lel, you become “the champion of champions”.

It’s a nice line, and one the organiser of this year’s IAAF Gold Label race will have been pleased to hear from the mouth of their reigning champion this week. Lel is going for his fourth London title on Sunday, his third in a row, in his first marathon since finishing fifth at the Olympic Games in Beijing.

If he wins, Lel will become the first man to win four London Marathons in the 29-year history of the race, and only the second to win three in a row following the Mexican Dionicio Ceron who had three straight wins from 1994 to 1996. He will, indeed, be “the champion of champions”.

But this could be Lel’s toughest London race yet for the field eclipses even last year’s for depth of quality, containing virtually every major name in world marathon running bar the World record holder Haile Gebrselassie.

Lel’s triumph last year was all the more impressive since his preparations were disrupted by civil unrest in Kenya. This year he has been troubled only in the last week or so by a sore hip. A scan on Wednesday evening revealed no serious damage and Lel says his training has gone better than ever.

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>> UPDATE - 26 April 2009 - Injured Lel pulls out <<

Defending and three-time men's champion Martin Lel of Kenya has withdrawn from the race due to an injury sustained to his right hip last weekend. 

"I am very disappointed not to be able to compete for my fourth Flora London Marathon title, but I need to be cautious," said Lel.  "The injury is not serious but the pain means I wouldn't be at my best tomorrow."

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Wanjiru – closest challenger, again

His friend Sammy Wanjiru, the Olympic champion, again looks likely to be Lel’s closest challenger. Wanjiru was second last year by just nine seconds and said earlier this week that he could be aiming for Gebreselassie’s six month old World record of 2:03:59 on Sunday. London’s course is not as flat and fast as Berlin but with the pacemakers instructed to run at 2:04 pace up to 20 miles, anything is possible.

Wanjiru certainly appears to be in confident mood. “If the pace is very good, I will try to break the World record on Sunday,” he said this week. “That’s my target. I have been training very hard and know the World record means a lot to Kenyans. But it is difficult. You have to get the right weather and conditions.”

Despite some indifferent early season form – he was seventh behind Lel in the Lisbon half last month – Wanjiru has a right to be confident. In Beijing he ran from the front to become the first Kenyan ever to win the Olympic marathon gold in the fastest time ever seen in a championships race, 2:06:32 – and that is the slowest of his three marathons so far.

Greatest field ever assembled?

The race will certainly need to be something special to improve on last year when Lel outsprinted Wanjiru to set a course record of 2:05:15. The first three broke 2:06 for the first time in marathon history and six went under 2:07. At the time it was described as “the greatest marathon for depth of quality in history”, although performances in Rotterdam this year have changed that somewhat.

Race director David Bedford is keen to reclaim the status for London, however, and has put together a field described as the greatest ever assembled for a big city race. It would be hard to disagree.

The presence of the Moroccan Abderrahim Goumri means all of last year’s top three finishers compete again and, in the shape of Wanjiru, Jaouad Gharib and Tsegaye Kebede, the race boasts all three Olympic medallists.

Gharib – IAAF World champion in 2003 and 2005 – says he is merely looking to improve his PB of 2:07:02, but Kebede is keen to produce another Ethiopian triumph to match his friend Deriba Merga’s victory in Boston.

Then there’s Zersenay Tadese, the double half marathon champion from Eritrea who was described this week as “one of the most exciting debutants on the marathon scene for many years”. Tadese admits to feeling a bit “nervous” at stepping up to the full marathon but believes he is capable of clocking between 2:05 and 2:06. He’ll be accompanied in the leading group by Yonas Kifle, the Eritrean record holder.

World class women field too…

The women’s race is no less full of quality. Like the men, it will also feature all three Olympic medallists in Romania’s Constantina Dita, Catherine Ndereba of Kenya and China’s Zhou Chunxiu, plus the top three from London last year, Irina Mikitenko, Russia’s Svetlana Zakharova and Gete Wami, the veteran Ethiopian who fell in last year’s race.

Mikitenko’s victory last year was seen regarded as a surprise, but just 12 months on she returns to London as the World Marathon Majors champion and clear favourite to retain her title. The German joined the world all-time elite last September when she clocked 2:19:19 in Berlin, making her the fastest in the world in 2008 and one of only nine women ever to have broken 2:20.

“I aim to win and run a fast time,” she said. “I have done the same preparation as last year and it will be very special for me to win again. But there are so many experienced and fast runners it will be very hard.”

As a two-time World champion, Ndereba is certainly one of the most experienced while, as the second quickest of all time, she’s also the fastest in the field. The Kenyan has never won in London and will have something to prove after she misjudged the Olympic marathon, allowing Dita to get too far ahead in the second half the race.

Despite seven previous appearances, Dita has never won here either. Now 39, the Olympic champion claims to be as fit as ever despite some radical lifestyle changes following her Beijing triumph.

“The Olympic Games is the Olympic Games, one for all time,” she says. “But the London Marathon always has the best runners in the world and I would love to win it. You never know.”

Zhou is another athlete whose life has changed since the Olympics. The 2006 London champion was third in Beijing, winning China’s first athletics medal of the Games, after winning silver at the 2007 World Championships. With a best of 2:19:51, she is also the third quickest in the field behind Mikitenko and Ndereba.

Wami could be a threat too. She is joined by her compatriot Berhane Adere, a double Chicago champion, while the Russian record holder, Lyudmila Petrova, hopes she can improve on her two second places from 2004 and 2006. After finishing fifth in the Olympics, Martha Komu will also be hoping for a podium place.

In the absence of Paula Radcliffe, who withdrew last month with a broken toe, Mara Yamauchi will fly the flag for Britain. Yamauchi says she wants to take “a big chunk” from her PB (2:25:03) and with the pacemakers set to go through half way in 71 minutes there’s every chance she will.

If the elite men are breaking their PBs too, it could be quite a day.

Matthew Brown for the IAAF

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