THE Boston Marathon, which will be under way at 6 a.m. our time on Monday, is proving once again that it has no peer. There’s fast company
afoot again in BostonSponsor John Hancock has used its enormous budget to bring together another Super Bowl of marathoning talent.
In the men's race, there are five runners who have personal records of 2 hours, 8 minutes or better, and six who are in the 2:09 range.
On the women's side, there are eight contenders who've clocked personal records between 2:26 and 2:29.
South African Colleen de Reuck, who won the Honolulu Marathon in 1995, has to be considered a favorite this year. She ran third in Boston last year but recently set a world record at the Cherry Blossom 10-miler. She's hot.
Her biggest obstacle might be defending Boston and Olympic champion Fatuma Roba of Ethiopia.
The American contenders this year?
You've got to be kidding.
There's a better chance that Monica Lewinsky will enter a nunnery on Monday than there is of an American victory by a man or woman at Boston.
If it happened -- and Colorado's 33-year-old Libbie Hickman, winner of the Bolder Boulder 10-k (making her marathoning debut) is the only American with a prayer -- the consequences for the U.S. running movement might be staggering.
No American man has won Boston since Michigan's Greg Meyer in 1983.
The last U.S. woman to win was Lisa Larsen Weidenbach in 1985.
The only Hawaii connection on the men's elite side this time is two-time Honolulu runner-up Cosmas Ndeti of Kenya. He's a three-time Boston winner (1993-95) with a 2:07:15 PR but hasn't run at that level for quite a while.
"Without Limits," the Warner Brothers sports movie co-written by Lanikai resident Kenny Moore, who's also the film's executive producer, won't be opening worldwide on Friday as originally announced.
Moore said the film, which is a dramatization of the career of the 1970s running rebel, Steve Prefontaine, will be held up until late summer.
Moore said in a phone conversation last weekend that his co-writer/director Robert Towne and the film's producer, Tom Cruise, want to better position it for Oscar consideration.
He said he thinks that Donald Sutherland, who plays former University of Oregon track coach Bill Bowerman, and Billy Crudup, who plays Prefontaine, deserve consideration for their performances.
The feet of Clay -- sprinter-hurdler Bryan Clay's feet, that is -- are headed for Azusa Pacific University in California.
Clay, who won the 110-meter high hurdles, the 100 meters and the 200 meters at the 1997 state meet, signed a letter of intent this month to attend the school that produced Olympic bronze medalist Dave Johnson.
The Castle High senior, who is also a standout in the triple jump, long jump, high jump and 400 meters, will train to be a decathlete.
Cord and Brad Anderson, the all-state basketball twins from state champion Iolani, are making an impact in track and field.
Cord has the best shot put in the state this year (54 feet, 10 inches) and Brad is third in the discus at 155 feet.
Incidentally, the Division 1-A inquiries have started to pour in for the twins, who are still 11th graders.
Nine schools at early count -- including the University of Hawaii -- have shown interest.
Cord says he's glad that none of the schools wants to break up the set.
Pat Bigold has covered sports for daily newspapers
in Hawaii and Massachusetts since 1978.
