Down to (and at) wire
Winner Cheruiyot falls at finish, hits his head, sliades across line, goes to hospital
It was bizarre. It almost was tragic. It definitely was heroic.
Robert K. Cheruiyot had beaten the marathon gods, but apparently not the odds, after 26.2 miles of grueling, windswept running on Sunday in the 29th LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon.
Finally getting the best of fellow Kenyan Daniel Njenga after a storybook duel over the last couple of miles, jubilant but exhausted Cheruiyot leaned back and began raising his arms in triumph as he neared the finish banner.
(Jean Lachat/Sun-Times)
PHOTO GALLERY
Race to the finish line
Runners: 34,698
Nations represented: 123
Runners 19 and younger: 440
Runners 70 and older: 60
Volunteers: 10,000
Medical personnel: 500
Massage therapists: 225
Media: 400
Ambulances: 42
Helicopters: 3
Cheerleading squads: 25
Bands: 20
Bananas: 50,000
Paper cups: 1.5 million
Gatorade: 41,780 gallons
Portable toilets: 900
Purse: $650,000
SOURCE: LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon
After being attended to at the finish line, the pride of Nandi, Kenya was wheeled to the medical tent and, according to race officials, the event's medical director Dr. Greg Ewert had the 28-year-old marathon superstar transported to Northwestern Memorial Hospital for observation.
His manager, Federico Rosa, reported doctors there determined Cheruiyot had suffered internal bleeding in his brain as well as external bleeding on his head and was being treated and observed. He was listed in good condition Sunday night.
''He just took a hard fall,'' executive race director Carey Pinkowski said. ''He had just run a marathon in these conditions [cold and windy] giving it everything he had. It wasn't like he had just walked out of the Hilton and got in a cab.''
By official USA Track and Field regulations, fall or no fall, you don't win until your torso crosses the finish line -- computer chips on running shoes don't count for the top elites --and incredibly, as Cheruiyot was about to be knocked cold from the hard thud, his forward momentum kept him sliding forward four or five feet, enough to officially cross the line, albeit almost horizontally, for the victory.
There was no controversy or protest. It was a clean win, but something no one had seen before here or anywhere.
''His heel just started slipping,'' race referee Pat Savage said. ''Luckily for him, he was sliding forward. By the time his head hit, he was still sliding.''
It appeared Cheruiyot might have lost his footing on the moist LaSalle Bank decal logo on the street right before the finish, but Rosa said he slipped only because it was wet pavement. The logo has been used before.
Cheruiyot, who is 6-2 and 143 pounds (unusual for a marathon runner), officially won what already had been an exciting race in 2 hours, 7 minutes, 35 seconds. Njenga, who finished in 2:07:40, momentarily thought he might have won because he wasn't sure if Cheruiyot had officially crossed the line.
It added another woulda-coulda-shoulda chapter to Njenga's jinxed Chicago career. He has been second three times and third two times, including his own fall at the finish in 2002.
Resting in his hospital bed, Cheruiyot, a two-time Boston Marathon winner, could take solace in the knowledge that he had won the $125,000 first prize plus $15,000 for breaking 2:08, and he now tops the leaderboard with 50 points in the new World Marathon Majors grand prix series.
''After he fell down, I was unable to speak to him,'' teary-eyed Njenga said. ''I thought, maybe I won, but later, I was told I hadn't. Robert Cheruiyot is a very strong man. There is nothing I can do. I have to accept it.''
Cheruiyot, Njenga, fellow Kenyans Jimmy Muindi and Robert Cheboror and American Abdi Abdirahman broke away from a pack of 12 runners near the 19-mile mark. By 20, Cheboror fell off the back, and by 22, Abdirahman also was gone. Muindi hung tough before he fell back as well near the 25-mile mark.
From there Cheruiyot and Njenga were stride-for-stride until Cheruiyot went for it with a half-mile to go. He opened a 10-meter lead, but Njenga covered it on the Roosevelt hill near Mile 26. Then Cheruiyot put the hammer down one more time, not knowing what was about to hit him.
Muindi, a five-time winner of the Honolulu Marathon, wound up third in 2:07:51, and Abdirahman was fourth in a personal-best 2:08:56, leading a good day for U.S. runners. His previous best was 2:11:24 last year at New York.
''I was happy with my performance,'' Abdirahman said. ''I was feeling great at about 35K [about 22 miles]. Then I made a little mistake. I went for my water, and they didn't. Before I knew it, they were 20 meters ahead of me.''
Cheboror finished fifth in 2:09:25, and American Brian Sell moved through a parade of fading Kenyans to pick off sixth; like Abdirahman, he posted a personal-best with 2:10:47. U.S. runners took nine of the top 20 places, signifying a possible resurgence in U.S. marathon running for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
Sell said the wind was a factor in his eight-second improvement from Boston in April. He had wanted to run in the 2:09s. He was the top runner from the Michigan-based Hansen's team.
