Posted: February 10, 2004

Athletics: Rutto And Ndereba Named Top Marathoners

By David Monti

(c) 2004 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved < RaceResultsWeekly.com>

In their April, 2004 issue which was just released, Running Times magazine named Kenyans Evans Rutto and Catherine Ndereba the top marathoners of 2003.

The Wilton, Conn.-based publication used an analysis prepared by statistician Ken Young, who also compiles their monthly and annual road racer rankings. According to the magazine, the most points were awarded to athletes who beat competitors who were identifed as the strongest and who competed in the world's best marathons. Only the top-5 marathoners in those races were awarded points, and the perceived prestige of any given marathon was not given any weight, only the competitiveness as determined by the participants. Credit was also given for fast times.

Rutto, who won the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon last October in a debut record of 2:05:50 was given the #1 rank over compatriot Paul Tergat who not only set the world record at Berlin last September (2:04:55) but also finished fourth at London. Rutto only ran one marathon last year. Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot, another Kenyan, was given the #3 rank. He won Boston and was third at Milano.

World champion Jaoud Gharib of Morocco was not ranked in the top-10, neither was the World Championships silver medalist, Julio Rey of Spain, who also won the Hamburg Marathon.

On the women's side, Ndereba was given the top rank over Paula Radcliffe of Great Britain. Ndereba was a model of consistency, winning the world title and finishing second at both London and New York. She broke 2:24:00 in each race, the first woman to do that three times in one year. Radcilffe only ran one marathon, her spectacular 2:15:25 world record at London.

Mizuki Noguchi of Japan earned the #3 rank, winning Osaka in 2:21:18 and earning the silver medal at the World Championships.

The magazine also ranked U.S. marathoners, giving Deena Kastor and Meb Keflezighi the top ranks.

Amongst the world's top marathons, the magazine considered Boston to have the most competitive men's race. London was ranked second and Paris third. The top-ranked women's field was London, with New York second and Boston third.

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