Mexican distance runner Adriana Fernandez (© Getty Images)
Adriana Fernandez and Andres Espinosa, the nation's fastest over 42.195km, lead the six-member Mexican team for the Olympic marathon in Athens.
Fernandez, the 1999 New York Marathon winner (PB 2:24.06 in London'99) will be accompanied by Angelica Sanchez and Margarita Tapia, who have run under 2:37 hours, the time required by the local authorities to make the Olympic squad.
After giving birth to her first son, Daniel, in November 2001, the four-time Pan American champion clocked her second best time of 2:24.11 to finish second in Berlin (2002). She ended last season with another sub-2:30 performance (2:29.54), when finishing ninth in London.
Overall, she has gone eight times under 2:30 over the marathon since 1998. She is expected to run the Flora London Marathon on April.
Tapia, 27, has made a great improvement from last year when she won the Houston Marathon in 2:28.36 on January 18. Thus, she became the fourth Mexican woman to run the marathon under 2:30 hours, after Olga Avalos-Appel, who nationalized American, Maria del Carmen Diaz and Adriana Fernandez.
Sanchez, 28, was third at the 2003 Milano Marathon last November with a 2:31.12 best.
Espinosa - 2:08 - leads men's squad
Espinosa, the 1993 New York Marathon winner, provided some resurgence for Mexican men's marathon, when he set a world best of 2:08.46 for a fourth place finish last autumn in Berlin.
That time was the first 2:10 run for a Mexican man since German Silva was sixth in Boston'98 with 2:08.56.
Espinosa, 41, has run 34 marathons in his career and he owns the nation's best with 2:07.19 when runner-up in Boston'94.
16th Lala International Marathon
Procopio Franco and Jose Ernani Palalia complete the Olympic trio.
Franco improved his personal best by two minutes to finish second last Sunday at the 16th Lala International Marathon in Torreon, which served as the Olympic qualifier, with 2:11.41. Espinosa and Francisco Bautista followed with 2:11.43 and 2:11.44, respectively.
Palalia was seventh in the 2002 Berlin with a personal best of 2:10.39.
They all met the national standard (2:12) to be included in the team for Athens.
The Lala marathon, which hosted the national championships for the third consecutive year, was won by Kenya's Thomas Omwenga (2:11.38) and Margarita Cabello (2:37.31).
Cabello, 35, crossed the finish line ahead of her countrywoman Alicia Rodriguez (2:37.32) and Kenya's Lucia Subano (2:37.33). However, the winner failed to meet the Athens standard.
Ana Gabriela Guevara, the World 400m champion, sounded the starting gun for the race, and was honoured by the Torreon authorities for her win in Paris last summer.
Mexico lived a magic 1988-1994 period in men's marathon when some of its best runners won classic races like London (Dionicio Ceron in 1994-96), Fukuoka (Ceron in 1993), New York (Salvador Garcia in 1991, Espinosa in 1993 and German Silva 1994-95), Chicago (Alejandro Cruz in 1988 and Martin Pitayo in 1990) among others.
In Olympic Games, the best performances belong to Rodolfo Gomez and German Silva, sixth in Moscow 1980 and Atlanta'96, respectively. In Sydney'2000, Adriana Fernandez finished 16th in 2:30.51, Espinosa was 27th and Benjamin Paredes 64th.
