Prokopcuka retains crown in New York

If today’s ING New York City Marathon were a computer game, you’d have to call it “Grand Theft, Marathon, New York.”

Totally stealing the women’s race was repeat winner Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia, who led or shared the lead virtually the entire 26.2 miles and won by a full minute from Tatiana Hladyr of Ukraine, 2:25:05 to 2:26:05.

The men’s race was won by Marilson Gomes dos Santos of Brazil, who engineered a solo breakaway at mile 19 and finished in 2:09:57, holding off late charges by Kenyans Stephen Kiagora (2:10:06) and 2005 winner Paul Tergat (2:10:12).

Behind both winners won from a Who’s Who of marathoning, male and female, who apparently spent so much time watching each other they forgot the object of the game is to cross the finish line before anyone else does.

You couldn’t blame it on the weather, either. The temperature was perhaps a bit cool (6-10 C.), the humidity was low (35%), and there was virtually no wind.

WOMEN

Pacesetter Luminita Talpos of Romania lost the field almost instantly, and after a couple of miles was all by herself, a vanishing ghost in white.  In the next kilometre, Prokopcuka, perhaps realising that rabbit or not, Talpos’ PB was a 2:27:32 marathoner, decided to get after her. A few miles farther on, Hladyr left the pack and soon made it a twosome with Prokopcuka.

Talpos went past the half marathon mark in 1:12:19, a decent but not really demanding pace but 93 seconds in front of Prokopcuka and Hladyr, who had another eight seconds on a seven woman all-star pack including Deena Kastor, Rita Jeptoo, Lorna Kiplagat, Catherine Ndereba, Susan Chepkemei, Silvia Skvorysova, and Lidiya Grigoryeva.

Going up First Avenue, Talpos dropped out. Now in the lead, Hladyr attacked two or three times, but Prokopcuva managed to stay with her, and amazingly the “pack” continued to ignore them, and the lead widened to 87 seconds by the 20-mile mark.

At 22 miles (circa 35 km), Prokopcuva surged away, and simply widened the gap till the finish.

After the race, Prokopcuka said, “The pace-setter was too fast for me, and the other girls stayed behind. I don’t know why. So I decided to go my own pace.”

“But running alone I was disoriented, and I was happy when Tatiana (Hladyr) caught me. Then I felt confident.”

Said Hladyr, “it was a big surprise that nobody went with us.”

Behind the winner’s 2:25:05 and Hladyr’s2:26:05 were Ndereba in 2:26:58, Jeptoo in 2:26:59, Grigoryeva in 2:27:21 and Kastor in 2:27:54.

MEN

The men’s race wasn’t quite as cut-and-dried as the women’s but like Prokopcuva and Hladyr, the 29-year-old Gomes dos Santos made a group of better known marathoners look as if they had forgotten everything they knew about racing tactics.

The lead pack was huge (28 of them) for more than half the race, but they really started running hard after mile 16 (on First Avenue, where the running really “starts”), thanks to a burst by Youssef Galmin of Morocco.

Then a 4:35 mile by South African Hendrick Ramaala swiftly cut the pack to ten – the others being Gomes, defender Tergat and fellow-Kenyans Kiogora, Rogers Rop, Daniel Yego and Titus Munji,  Olympic champion Stefano Baldini of Italy, and Americans Meb Keflezhigi, Dathan Ritzenhein, and Peter Gilmore.

Just before 20 miles, as Baldini was dropping off the back, Gomes made a rather tentative move, and for a few hundred metres the rest let him run alone 8-10 metres in front. Then Gomes looked back, saw nobody seemed to be paying much attention him, and picked up the pace abruptly.

Soon the lead was serious – 40 seconds.

“I was surprised that nobody went with me,” said Gomes, “Many of these guys know me.”

By the time Tergat and Kiogora decided to go after him it was too late. They gradually cut the margin to 13 seconds with two km to go, but they didn’t get any closer.

“They weren’t really gaining on me,” said Gomes. “I just wanted to control my pace to make sure I had something left at the finish.”

Basically, despite the fact that Gomes’ PB is 2:08:48 and he has set Brazilian records at 5000 (13:19.43) and 10,000 (27:48:49) this year, the rest of the elite runners didn’t take him seriously.

They probably will from now on.

Both winners will take home $155,000 -- $130,000 first place money and a $25,000 time bonus.

James Dunaway for the IAAF

RESULTS

Men
1. Marilson Gomes dos Santos, Brazil, 2:09:58
2. Stephen Kiogora, Kenya, 2:10:06.
3. Paul Tergat, Kenya, 2:10:10.
4. Daniel Yego, Kenya, 2:10:34.
5. Rodgers Rop, Kenya, 2:11:24.
6. Stefano Baldini, Italy, 2:11:33.
7. William Kipsang, Kenya, 2:11:54.
8. Hailu Negussie, Ethiopia, 2:12:12.

Women
1. Jelena Prokopcuka, Latvia, 2:25:05.
2. Tatiana Hladyr, Ukraine, 2:26:05.
3. Catherine Ndereba, Kenya, 2:26:58.
4. Rita Jeptoo, Kenya, 2:26:59.
5. Lidiya Grigoryeva, Russia, 2:27:21.
6. Deena Kastor, Mammoth Lakes, Calif., 2:27:54.
7. Nina Rillstone, New Zealand, 2:31:19.
8. Lornah Kiplagat, Netherlands, 2:32:31.