South Korean wins Boston marathon
BOSTON (AP) — A South Korean who nearly quit running after a poor showing at the Sydney Olympics ended Kenya’s 10-year winning streak at the Boston Marathon.
Lee Bong-ju became his country’s first champion in 51 years Monday when he pulled away in the closing stages to win in 2 hours, 9 minutes, 43 seconds.
Kenya still had a winner in the women’s race, with Catherine Ndereba victorious for the second straight year.
Americans, meanwhile, had one of their best races in several years.
Rod DeHaven, the only American to make the men’s 2000 U.S. Olympic team last year, placed sixth in a career-best 2:12:41 — the first top 10 finish by a U.S. runner in seven years.
Josh Cox, at 25 the youngest of the elite Americans, even took the lead briefly at the 12.4-mile mark before fading and finishing 14th.
Mark Coogan, a 1996 Olympian, was the third American in the top 20, placing 19th at 2:18:58.
Lee’s victory was the first by a non-Kenyan since Italy’s Gelindo Bordin in 1990 and the first by a Korean since Kee Yong-ham in 1950.
Lee won the silver medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and said he was spurred on by the recent death of his father, Hae-ku.
“That was the one thing that pushed me to exert myself more in this competition,” the 30-year-old Lee said. He beat runner-up Silvio Guerra (2:10:07) of Ecuador by about 120 yards in the cool, sunny weather.
The presence of the highly successful Kenyans didn’t bother Lee.
“I knew I was alone with many Kenyans,” he said, “but the marathon is competing against yourself. I focused on competing against myself and not paying attention to the others.”
After winning the race every year since 1991 and with the past four winners running Monday, including two-time champion Moses Tanui, the best the Kenyans could do was a third-place by Joshua Chalang’a in his marathon debut.
Tanui, the 1996 and 1998 winner, finished 12th; defending champion Elijah Lagat was 17th; and 1999 winner Joseph Chebet dropped out.
Olympic gold medalist Gezahegne Abera of Ethiopia was 16th.
At last year’s Olympics in Sydney, Lee finished a devastating 24th and thought about quitting marathon running.
He rekindled his career with a second-place finish at the Fukuoka Marathon in Japan in December.
Lee began running marathons at 18, and this was his 26th. When he was a 16-year-old in high school, he ran a 4:17 mile.
But he never won as big a race as he did Monday.
Lee took command between the 24th and 25th miles when the inexperienced Chalang’a fell back. Shortly thereafter, Guerra also slowed, and Lee was home free. As he came toward the finish line down Boylston Street, he started waving his arms in celebration.
The women’s race wasn’t nearly as competitive. After a comparatively slow first half of 1:13:05, Ndereba took charge four miles later and broke away from three-time Boston champion and 1996 Olympic gold medalist Fatuma Roba of Ethiopia.
She won by about 1,000 yards at 2:23:53.
Ndereba, the women’s road racer of the year in 1996, 1998 and 1999, surprisingly was left off the Kenyan Olympic team last year despite winning the Boston Marathon. Instead of competing at Sydney, she went on to win the Chicago Marathon with a career-best 2:21:33.
“I don’t think I have something to prove,” she said Monday. “I have proven enough.
“Now. I don’t necessarily go for the Olympics or the World Championships. I want to do something special. I want to break the world record.”
Malgorzata Sobanska of Poland finished second at 2:26:42. She was followed by Lyubov Morganova of Russia at 2:27:18, Lornah Kiplagat of Kenya at 2:27:56 and Roba at 2:28:08. (Associated Press)
