Catherina McKiernan of Ireland en route to winning the 1998 London Marathon (© Getty Images)
Summary by Mark Butler.
Men's Race
Abel Antón waited until just before the 26th mile to take the lead for the first time before going on to win his fourth marathon in five outings. Along with a pack containing all the other principals, the Spanish World Champion followed the early pace of Eduardo do Nascimento (BRA), who went through halfway in 64:01.
The Brazilian continued in front until after 16 miles. After he dropped out, John Brown (GBR) and Antonio Pinto (POR) took turns in front before the unheralded Abdelkader El Mouaziz made a dramatic bid for victory.
The Moroccan, twice winner of the Marrakech marathon, broke clear at 19.5 miles. After successive miles of 5:00, 4:37 , 4:45 and 4:45, El Mouaziz had a lead of 30 seconds at 23.5 miles. Anton and Pinto then began to close the gap. On Birdcage Walk - just around the corner from the finish - the Moroccan looked round anxiously to see Antón bearing down on him.
The Spaniard hung behind El Mouaziz for a few strides, then sprinted clear, waving to the crowd on the finishing straight along The Mall. These extravances may well have cost him a $25,000 bonus for a course record; although he set a fine personal best, he was two seconds slower than Pinto's winning time from 1997. E
l Mouaziz held on well to take 1:43 from his personal best ahead of Pinto. Spain's Julio Rey made an excellent début in fourth place.
Olympic Champion Josiah Thugwane (RSA) dropped out at around 10 miles.
Women's Race
Ireland's Catherina McKiernan made it 12 wins out of 12 races since June 1997 after producing a magnificent surge in the second half of the race. At halfway, the Irishwoman was in a pack more than one minute behind the leaders. These were pacemakers Helen Kimaiyo (KEN) and Gitte Karlshøj (DEN), closely followed by Mexico's Adriana Fernández.
Fernández, the only élite woman to stay with the pacemakers, was left with a lead of around 15 seconds from Romania's Lidia Simon, with a pack including McKiernan, Liz McColgan (GBR), Joyce Chepchumba (KEN) and Marlene Renders (BEL) a further 75 second back at 15 miles.
McKiernan then made her move. She was 60 seconds behind Fernández at 18 miles. Simon closed on Fernández, but before she could catch her McKiernan passed them both just after 20 miles. The Irishwoman, who was to run the second half of the race in 72:29, streaked ahead with a 5:23 split between the 21st and 22nd miles. Meanwhile, McColgan pulled clear of Chepchumba and the rest.
At 22 miles, the Scotswoman was 55 down on the lead but she cut this to 29 seconds by the finish for her second successive runner-up spot. Chepchumba, first in 1997 and second in 1996, completed her medal set in third place.
"The first eight miles were a little bit too slow," said the winner, who complained of stomach problems during the race. "The last bit was very tough but it was over quickly," McKiernan added.
"I came on like a train at the finish" said McColgan, who felt she left her final effort a little too late. "It was a funny old race but I enjoyed it."
| Men’s Result: 1, Abel Antón ESP 2:07:57 2, Abdelkader El Mouaziz MAR 2:08:07 3, António Pinto POR 2:08:13 4, Julio Rey ESP 2:08:33 5, Abebe Mekonnen ETH 2:09:52 6, Robert Stefko SVK 2:09:53 (Slovak record) 7, Diego García ESP 2:10:35 8, Jon Brown GBR 2:11:10 9, Steve Moneghetti AUS 2:11:40 10, Kenjiro Jitsui JPN 2:12:46 11, Vincenzo Modica ITA 2:13:21 12, Gideon Mutisya KEN 2:13:40 13, Antonio Serrano ESP 2:13:52 14, Masaki Oya JPN 2:14:10 15, Spiridon Andriopoulos GRE 2:14:12 16, Mark Hudspith GBR 2:14:19 17, Lawrence Peu RSA 2:14:53 18, Sean Quilty AUS 2:15:18 19, Robbie Johnston NZL 2:15:33 20, Harri Hanninen FIN 2:16:06 21, Billy Burns GBR 2:16:11 22, Noel Berkeley IRL 2:16:22 23, Pamenos Ballantyne STV 2:16:25 24, Steve Brace GBR 2:16:34 25, Abdellatif Talbini FRA 2:16:40 26, Alan Chilton GBR 2:17:07 27, Michael Dalton AUS 2:17:30 28, Juan Antonio Ruiz ESP 2:17:32 29, Malcolm Price GBR 2:17:43 30, Tom McGrath IRL 2:17:48 31, Steve Green GBR 2:18:11 32, Joseph Cheruiyot KEN 2:18:22 33, Barry Royden GBR 2:19:57 34, Nick Jones GBR 2:20:22 35, Darren Hiscox GBR 2:21:16 36, Graham Hill GBR 2:21:38 37, Marco Gielen NED 2:22:02 38, Toni Bernadó AND 2:22:15 39, Makaya Masumpa RSA 2:22:57 40, Josephat Chemjor KEN 2:23:02 41, Pekka Rantakari FIN 2:23:14 42, Spencer Newport GBR 2:23:27 43, Padraig McKinney IRL 2:23:33 44, Idris Ibrahim SWE 2:23:55 45, Phil Costley NZL 2:23:58 46, Sam Mully KEN 2:23:59 47, Ieuan Ellis GBR 2:24:54 48, Billy Nixon GBR 2:25:38 49, Tony Duffy GBR 2:25:41 50, Paul Froud GBR 2:25:57 .... 174, Steve Cram GBR 2:38:13 Non-finishers included Josiah Thugwane RSA & Paul Evans GBR 5km: Gary Staines GBR/Eduardo do Nascimento BRA/Antonio Silio ARG (pacemakers) 14:46 (estimate) 10km: do Nascimento 29:50 15km: do Nascimento 45:05 20km: do Nascimento 63:23 Halfway: do Nascimento 64:01 25km: do Nascimento 1:15:33 30km: Pinto 1:31:25 35km: El Mouaziz 1:46:24 40km: El Mouaziz 2:01:25 | Women's Result 1, Catherine McKiernan IRL 2:26:26 2, Liz McColgan GBR 2:26:54 3, Joyce Chepchumba KEN 2:27:22 4, Marleen Renders BEL 2:27:30 5, Lidia Simon ROM 2:28:41 6, Sonja Oberem 2:29:39 7, Adriana Fernández MEX 2:29:46 8, Wang Yangfang CHN 2:30:47 9, Malgorzata Sobanska POL 2:32:02 10, Marian Sutton GBR 2:32:14 11, Pan Jinhong CHN 2:35:38 12, Taeko Terauchi JPN 2:36:33 13, Wang Yanrong CHN 2:38:18 14, Griselda González ESP 2:39:07 (ex-Argentina) 15, Debbie Percival GBR 2:39:54 16, Lucia Subano KEN 2:40:24 17, Stephanie Andrews CAN 2:40:57 18, Tomoko Kitamura JPN 2:42:18 19, Nicola Brown GBR 2:43:18 20, Tracy Swindell GBR 2:43:41 21, Ruth Kingsborough GBR 2:44:33 22, Sandra Riemann GER 2:44:45 23, Anita Mellodew GBR 2:46:17 24, Sandra Branney GBR 2:48:47 25, Joanna Lodge GBR 2:50:10 26, Lisa Hollick GBR 2:51:16 27, Gry Wilhelmsen NOR 2:51:45 28, Zina Marchant GBR 2:53:10 29, Zoe Lowe GBR 2:53:44 30, Julia Cornford GBR 2:54:07 31, Patricia Sloan GBR 2:54:41 32, Anne Jeeves GBR 2:54:42 33, Janice Moorkite GBR 2:54:48 34, Jane Boulton GBR 2:54:55 35, Heather Robinson GBR 2:55:55 36, Edwina Turner GBR 2:57:29 37, Denise Pycroft GBR 2:58:07 38, Susan Martin-Clarke GBR 2:58:29 39, Linda Thomson GBR 2:58:51 40, Nicole Docker GBR 2:59:19 41, Rachel Mackenzie GBR 5:00:25 42, Cecilia Fenech MLT 3:00:37 43, Alice Osborne GBR 3:00:49 44, Lisa Knights GBR 3:00:54 45, Maggie Creber GBR 3:00:54 46, Maggie Thompson GBR 3:00:59 47, Gill O'Connor GBR 3:01:17 48, Kerrie Wood GBR 3:01:27 49, Marlene Pautard GBR 3:01:33 50, Carol Adams GBR 3:01:39 5km: Helen Kimaiyo KEN & Gitte Karlshøj DEN (pacemakers) 16:45 10km: Kimaiyo 34:06 15km: Kimaiyo 50:19 20km: Kimaiyo 68:41 Halfway: Kimaiyo 72:28 25km: Fernández 1:25:45 30km: Fernández 1:43:56 35km: McKiernan 2:01:41 40km: McKiernan 2:19:02 |
Weather 10°C at start, wind 7mph south-south westerly
