Monday, April 19, 2010

Cheruiyot and Erkesso win Boston

Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot from Kenya and Ethiopia's Teyba Erkesso won the Boston Marathon men’s and women’s races.  Americans Ryan hall and Paige Higgins were the top Americans in the field.  Here is the usatoday.com article.
Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot captures Boston Marathon in record time

Photo left by Elise Amendola, AP
Robert Kirprono Cheruiyot wins the Boston Marathon in course-record time.

BOSTON (AP) — Kenya's Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot won the 114th Boston Marathon on Monday, breaking the course record with a time of 2 hours, 5 minutes, 52 seconds.
That was 82 seconds faster than the record set in 2006 by four-time winner Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot, who's not related. The 2010 champion wins the $150,000 first prize and an extra $25,000 for setting the course record.
Cheruiyot finished 91 seconds ahead of Ethiopian Tekeste Kebede, with defending champion Deriba Merga in third and Americans Ryan Hall and Meb Keflezighi rounding out the top five.
It's the first time two Americans have finished in the top five since '06; no American has won the men's race since Greg Meyer in 1983.
Hall, who finished third last year, fell out of the top 15 near the halfway point but sprinted through the final mile to challenge Merga for a spot on the podium. He missed by 2 seconds, but his time of 2:08:41 was the fastest ever for an American in Boston, six seconds faster than Bob Kempainen ran in 1994.
Ethiopia's Teyba Erkesso won the women's race in an unofficial time of 2:26:11, outsprinting Russia's Tatyana Pushkareva to win by three seconds in the third-closest women's finish in event history.
Defending champion Salina Kosgei was third, and Paige Higgins of Arizona was the top American woman in 13th.
Erkesso broke away from the pack with 11 miles to go and opened a 90-second lead. But she began holding her stomach in Cleveland Circle, with about four miles to go, and Pushkareva closed the gap to 16 seconds as they approached the one-mile mark at Kenmore Square.
It's Ethiopia's fifth women's victory.

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