Kosgei and Merga win Boston, by Alfons Juck, Note by Larry Eder

Olympic fourth placer and Houston 09 champion Deriba Merga rushed the Newton Hills and built a fifty second lead. Photo by Photorun.net.

Kosgei and Merga winners
BOSTON (USA): After a dramatic finish in last metres Kenyan Salina Kosgei registered the biggest win of her career at the 113th Boston Marathon. The 10th placer from Olympic Games won in 2:32:16 beating in close race title defender Dire Tune of Ethiopia (2:32:17) who collapsed after the finish-line. Third Kara Goucher of USA (2:32:25) as she was pushing the pace in last kilometres. Ethiopian olympic fourth placer Deriba Merga in his sixth marathon also got the biggest win in the life after a big solo in 2:08:42. Second Kenyan Daniel Rono after beeing second in Rotterdam last year clocked 2:09:32 and another third place for a US runner (first since 1985) as Ryan Hall achieved 2:09:40 in a windy conditions. Interesting to note that Salina Kosgei was former 800 m runner (2:03.6 in 1999) and won the 10 000 m at Commonwealth Games 2002 in Manchester (31:27.83). It was her 12th marathon and Boston winning time is her slowest ever. “I’ve never experienced anything like this,” said Hall. “I just wanted it for everybody that wanted it for me,” said Goucher, whose voice cracked repeatedly in the postrace news conference. “I’m proud of how I did. I just wanted to be the one that won — for everybody,“ informs Boston media. The winners will take home 150 000 USD. The women’s race was the slowest since 1985. Defending champion Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot, who was seeking an unprecedented fourth straight title and fifth overall, dropped out of the race between the 35K and 40K markers and was taken to a hospital. A field of 26,386 runners was competing, writes www.boston.com. In men race fourth Ethiopian Tekeste Kebede improved to 2:09:49 and the other Robert Cheruiyot (Frankfurt winner last year) was fifth (2:10:06). Best European was the Russian Grigoriy Andreyev as 12th in 2:16:17. In women competition also Russian Lidia Grigoryeva was the best European as 6th (2:34:20). Both winners went into the lead of World Marathon Majors 2009-2010 ranking. In the current 2008-09 ranking Sammy Wanjiru leads with 40 points ahead of Merga (30) and Irina Mikitenko has 50 ahead of Dire Tune (40) and Salina Kosgei (30). Both leaders will compete next Sunday in London.

Salina Kosgei took the women’s race, photo by Photorun.net.
OTHER NEWS
HENGELO (NED): Both Ethiopian running superstars confirmed their attendance at FBK Games in Hengelo on June 1. Kenenisa Bekele who missed the indoor season due to injury will compete at 1500 m. His best is 3:32.35 from Shanghai meet in 2007. „He missed two months of training, but now is ok. This season with Golden League and World Championships he would need to have good finish, that is why he is running the 1500 m,“ said his agent Jos Hermens. Haile Gebrselassie plans to attack his own one hour world record from Ostrava Golden Spike meeting in 2007 (21 285 m).
CARSON (USA): Organizers of the adidas Track Classic, one of the premier track and field meets in the USA, announced a few of the world-class athletes who are set to compete in this year’s event (Area Permit meeting to score into IAAF World Athletics Tour) at The Home Depot Center in Carson, California on May 16. Among the marquee athletes headlining this year’s meet: three-time Olympic medalist Allyson Felix; 2004 Olympic 400m Champion Jeremy Wariner; and Veronica Campbell-Brown, Jamaica’s sprint queen and 200 m Olympic winner. Organisers are saying in a release. Other athletes competing in this year’s event include distance runner and two-time Olympic medalist Bernard Lagat, Jennifer Stuczynski, the second highest pole vaulter in history, and Ethiopia’s World Cross Country Champion, Gebre-Egziabher Gebremariam.
CANBERRA (AUS): 400 m hurdles reigning world champion Jana Rawlinson split from her husband and moved back in with her parents, informs The Daily Telegraph. She is living with her parents in the Hills district while husband and coach Chris has stayed at the couple’s Canberra home with two year old son Cornelis. She is now looking for a new hurdles coach in Sydney. The world athletics championships will be held in August and Rawlinson has suggested to friends she may scrap her season, give her injuries time to hopefully fully heal – and provide little Cornelis with a sibling.
CALGARY (CAN): 27-year-old heptathlete Jessica Zelinka announced that with her fiance Nathaniel Miller are expecting their first child on June 1. Zelinka, the Pan-American Games gold medallist in heptathlon in 2007, said she and Miller plan to marry sometime next year and she intends to resume training in time to compete in the Commonwealth Games in India in 2010.
LONDON (GBR): Olympic marathon champion (2:06:32) Samuel Wanjiru left for Sunday’s London Marathon. “I expect to win”, he said when asked what he thought of the race. He said he was well prepared. “Last year it was cold but since the race is taking place a few days later this year, the weather might be favourable and result to better time. We can clock 2:04”, he said for The Nation.
TOKYO (JAP): 2004 Athens Olympics women’s marathon gold medalist Mizuki Noguchi revealed that she is still undergoing medical treatment, as Brett Larner writes. After withdrawing from last summer’s Beijing Olympics with an injury to her left leg, Noguchi had begun training for a comeback race at September’s Berlin Marathon. However, the pain has returned and whether she will be able to appear in Berlin as planned is unknown. Coach Fujita said, “Things aren’t feeling perfect yet, so right now Mizuki has completely stopped running. Getting 100% healthy is the goal. There’s no cure for [the inflammation Noguchi is suffering in her leg], so we just have to wait for time to take care of it.”
NEW DELHI (IND): India has sent eight of its most promising young runners to South Africa as part of a new scheme to develop a world-class athlete by the time of the London 2012 Olympics. Informs insidethegames.com. Eight athletes, who includes sprinters and middle-distance runners, aged between 17 and 25 have moved to Durban to train under South Africa’s former national coach Mark Labuschagne. Their trip is being funded by the Mittal Champion Trust (MCT), which was set-up by Indian billionaire Lakshmi Mittal and provides grants to the country’s most promising sportsmen and women.
RESULTS
REDUIT (MRI, Apr 18-19): Local star Stephan Buckland made the headlines of the international Mauritius meet with a 100m-200m double (10.23, 20.74). The African combined events championships crowned Madagascar’s Ali Kamé (7363 points) and Ghana’s Margaret Simpson (5667 points).
YPSILANTI (USA, Apr 18): New Liberian record here for long jumper Cadeau Kelley who achieved exactly 800 cm.
Special thanks to Alfons Juck, EME News.
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