Posted: April 18, 2004

Athletics: Rutto, Okayo The Victors In London

From David Monti and Bob Ramsak

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

LONDON (18-Apr) -- Running in windy and cold conditions with heavy rains, Kenyans Evans Rutto and Margaret Okayo won this morning's Flora London Marathon in 2:06:19 and 2:22:35, respectively. The winning times are unofficial.

Rutto, who won last October's LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon in 2:05:50, the fastest-ever debut over the distance, bounced back from a late-race fall to become the first Chicago-London back-to-back winner since Steve Jones of Wales who won the Chicago race in 1984 and London in 1985.

Running stride-for stride with Sammy Korir on slippery cobblestone with the rains intensifying, the 26-year-old Rutto slipped and fell one hour, forty-eight minutes and 20 seconds into the race as the pair ran under the Tower of London. Korir, the second-fastest marathoner ever, then tripped over Rutto. Stunned, the two seemed to wait for each other to recover before resuming the race. Powered by a surge in the 25th mile, Rutto took the lead for good one hour and fifty-seven minutes into the race to win, with Korir second in 2:06:48. World champion Jaouad Gharib of Morocco was third in 2:07:12, with Stefan Baldini of Italy fourth in 2:08:37.

In the women's race, the diminutive Okayo jumped to an early lead, and by the time she reached the 10-mile point in 52:43, was ahead of Paula Radcliffe's world record pace for an all-women's race. She slowed considerably in the 11th mile where she was passed by Constantina Tomescu-Dita. Echoing her racing style from last fall's LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon and last summer's World Championships, The Romanian led for nearly an hour until Okayo, the winner of last November's ING New York City Marathon, retook the lead for good one hour and 46 minutes into the race. Lyudmila Petrova passed the fading Tomescu-Dita to finish second in 2:26:02, with the Romanian held on for third in 2:26:52. Albina Ivanova was fourth in 2:27:24. The last woman to win back-to-back New York and London races was Grete Waitz in 1985 and 1986.

Producing the shock of the day was Briton Tracey Morris. With a personal best of just 3:39 prior to the race, Morris finished tenth in 2:33:52 to earn a spot on the British Olympic team.

Limping heavily, defending champion Gezahegne Abera of Ethiopia dropped out six miles into the race, with what appeared to be a recurrence of an Achilles tendon injury.

A full report and complete results will appear in the special Tuesday edition of RRW. There will also be a race day report from tomorrow's Boston Marathon.

Subscribe to Race Results Weekly: www.raceresultsweekly.com.

Race results Weekly Archive