Kenyan Lameck Aguta
wins Boston Marathon
He pulls away from
By Pat Bigold
a three man pack in the final mile;
Fatuma Roba wins
women's race
Star-BulletinBOSTON -- Kenya continued its dominance of the world's most prestigious footrace as 25-year-old Lameck Aguta, who was fourth in 1996, broke from a three-man pack in the last mile to win the 101st Boston Marathon today in 2:10:44. Kenyan Jimmy Muindi, the 1996 Honolulu Marathon runner-up, stayed in a large lead pack for most of the race and actually took a slight lead at mile 19 with a 4:59 mile.
But another Kenyan, Joseph Kamau, made a move in the next mile and Muindi gradually faded with several other members of a 10-runner pack . He finished in sixth place in 2:12:49.
Muindi, who has moved his finish at the Honolulu Marathon up from fourth to second in the last three races, said he will return to attempt to win the race this December. He won $12,000 today.
Kamau opened as much as a 30-yard lead over the next 30 yards before Dionicio Ceron of Mexico and Aguta caught him at 22 miles. Aguta moved ahead to stay two miles later.
Fatuma Roba, the 26-year-old Ethiopian who won the 1996 Olympic Marathon, captured the Boston Marathon women's crown in 2:26:24. But she had all shecould handle from a former Honolulu Marathon champion who stayed in contention until the 24th mile.
Roba is the first African woman and first black woman to win the women's race in its 25-year history.
The men's and women's winners each won $75,000.
South African Colleen de Reuck, the 1995 Honolulu Marathon champion, rallied from 50 yards back at 14 miles to join leaders Elana Meyer, her fellow South African, and Roba, in a three-woman battle that lasted for 10 miles.
Roba broke away at 40 kilometers to take a 13-second lead on Meyer as de Reuck suddenly suffered leg cramps and fell well back into third, but still firmly ahead of three-time defending champion Uta Pippig of Germany.
De Reuck, who finished in 2:28:03 in third place behind Elana Meyer (2:27:08 ), was in so much pain after the race that she could barely ascend the stage in the Copley Plaza Hotel ballroom where the post-race press conference was held.
Asked about her physical crisis on the course, de Reuck quipped, "My quads were talking to me."
Before she disappeared into an elevator to undergo mandatory drug testing, De Reuck repeated that she hopes to return to the Honolulu Marathon in December to regain her title. She skipped the 1996 race.
De Reuck, who won the 1996 Berlin Marathon, was making her Boston debut.
She aerned $21,000 for third place.
Pippig, who had become the darling of Boston for her courageous effort against intestinal distress last year and her tradition of blowing kisses to the crowd at the start and finish of each race, clocked in at 2:28:51.
Another woman with a Honolulu Marathon connection, 1996 runner-up Svetlana Vasilyeva of Russia, was 15th in 2:39:59. It was also her Boston debut.
Franz Nietlispach of Switzerland won the men's wheelchair division in 1:28:14, far outdistancing Philippe Couprie of France (1:35:09).
Louise Sauvage of France denied seven-time defending champion Jean Driscoll of Illinois a chance to win an unprecedented eighth women's wheelchair victory at Boston.
The only other competitor to win seven titles of any kind at Boston was Clarence DeMar, who accomplished the feat as an open division runner between 1911 and 1930.
Kamau and three-time London Marathon champion Dionicio Ceron of Mexico swapped the lead between the 20th and 24th miles before Aguta moved aheadat the 40-kilometer mark.
Tesfaye Bekele, a native of Ethiopia who won the Great Aloha Run in February and was eighth in the 1996 Honolulu Marathon in just under 2 hoursand 18 minutes, finished 10th in Boston today in 2:14:02. Bekele, who lists Cambridge, Mass., as his residence despite having lived in Honolulu the past few months, earned a $4,200 pay day for his effort.
Bekele was never sighted in or near the lead pack throughout the race but took advantage of the attrition rate of the leaders.
