NEW YORK (AP & Staff) — Geoffrey Mutai blew past the competition Sunday to win the New York City Marathon in a record-breaking fashion. Geoffrey Mutai likes his chances in any championship-style marathon. The Kenyan has turned in two eye-popping performances in seven months in races without pace-setters after he shattered the course record in the New York City Marathon on Sunday. He figures to be the favorite next summer in the London Games — if he can make the Olympic team in a country so deep in the sport. Mutai’s performance was no surprise after he ran the fastest marathon ever earlier this year. Firehiwot Dado wasn’t a favorite coming into the women’s race and victory seemed impossible with even a few miles left. But the Ethiopian made a stunning comeback for her first major marathon title. Mutai finished in 2 hours, 5 minutes, 6 seconds, crushing the previous mark of 2:07:43 set by Tesfaye Jifar of Ethiopia a decade earlier. In April, Mutai ran the fastest 26.2 miles in history: 2:03:02 in Boston. It didn’t count as a world record because the course is considered too straight and too downhill. “I am happy now because even although it was not recognized, I’m happy to be at that level,” Mutai said. “And I know one day, maybe I can come to do something. The course here — it was tough. But the weather was so good. I think I’ll try to maintain myself to prove it right.” With little wind on a cool, sunny day, the conditions were perfect for fast times. The second- and third-place finishers also broke the old course record. Fellow Kenyan Emmanuel Mutai (no relation), the London Marathon champ and course-record holder, ran a 2:06:28. Tsegaye Kebede of Ethiopia was third in 2:07:14. Defending champ Gebre Gebremariam of Ethiopia was fourth. Dado trailed London Marathon champ Mary Keitany by nearly 2 1/2 minutes at the 15-mile mark but passed her with about a mile left. The 27-year-old Dado won in 2:23:15 — almost a minute better than her previous personal best. “Because she’d been running so fast from the very beginning, I didn’t imagine that we’d catch her,” Dado said through a translator. “But when we did get closer and we saw her, I was very surprised and I was very happy.” Fellow Ethiopian Buzunesh Deba, who lives in the Bronx and enjoyed vocal support, [...]
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JOHANNESBURG (AP & Staff) — Oscar Pistorius must run another 400-meter “A” qualifying time in the three months before the London Olympics to make history as the first amputee athlete to run at an able-bodied games, South Africa’s Olympic Committee said Wednesday. Clarifying its 2012 qualifying criteria, the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee said that the double-amputee athlete had not yet qualified despite running inside the “A” time in July — which earned Pistorius an historic place at the world championships in Daegu, South Korea. “Oscar would have to satisfy the ‘A’ qualifying criteria as is for able-bodied athletes within the stipulated time period, which I think is within three months of the games,” SASCOC chief executive Tubby Reddy said of Pistorius’ mission to make the Olympics. “Within three months of the games, if he runs that time he qualifies. Many people have said he has run that time already, however, he has not qualified,” Reddy told reporters. Pistorius ran a personal-best 45.07 seconds on his carbon fiber blades at a small meet this year in northern Italy, the only time he has gone under the 45.25-second qualifying mark for the July 27-Aug. 12 London Olympics. He clocked 45.39 in the 400 heats at the worlds in Daegu and then 46.19 to finish last in his semifinal, missing out on a place in the final. While not referring directly to Pistorius, SASCOC President Gideon Sam said South Africa did not want to take any “flash in the pan” athletes to the Olympics. “The criteria works like this: to avoid a situation of a flash in the pan, you make the time, but you have to show evidence that again you can make that time,” Sam said, adding that only a handful of South African rowers, a canoeist and the country’s women’s soccer team were already certain of competing in London. “There’s opportunities up to July next year for all the other athletes. And there will be more of them,” Sam said. Sam said South Africa’s Olympic body had tightened its criteria after several swimmers made qualifying times just once before the 2000 Sydney Olympics and then put in disappointing performances at the games. “We have to stick to our guns,” he said.
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CHICAGO (AP & Staff) — Initial autopsy results were inconclusive in the death of a North Carolina firefighter who died after collapsing 500 yards from the Chicago Marathon finish line. The Cook County medical examiner’s office reported Monday that further tests were needed to help determine why 35-year-old William Caviness died. Paramedics at the race were able to get his heart beating again, but the Greensboro, N.C., man was pronounced dead at a Chicago hospital. Chicago’s weather was warm Sunday. But the marathon’s medical director has said fewer marathoners sought medical treatment than in past years. Medical director George Chiampas said 54 runners were taken to hospitals this year, compared with 100 last year and 85 in 2008 under similar conditions. Chicago Marathon officials said the course had enough fluids for runners, along with cooling misters and aid stations. A large number of medical personnel were positioned on the course’s final mile and at the finish line area. It was the second time in five years that a runner died at the race. Chad Schieber, a 35-year-old Michigan police officer and father of three, died during the 2007 marathon in near-90 degree heat. An autopsy blamed his death on a heart condition called mitral valve prolapse, and authorities said tests showed no evidence he was dehydrated. That year, 174 runners were taken to local hospitals. Friends and family in North Carolina mourned Caviness. He was a gentleman, a young man with old-fashioned manners who sought permission from his girlfriend’s father before asking her to marry him, said his father-in-law, Bill Britt. “That’s something from a different age,” Britt said from his home in Greensboro. “It was the most wonderful thing.” Caviness met his wife, Jenny, in high school, Britt said. They married in 1999 and had two children, ages 4 years and 10 months, whom Caviness would watch on his days off while Jenny was at her job. “He was just a superb guy,” Britt said. “He’d do anything in the world for anybody.” An avid runner, Caviness would sometimes run the 18 or so miles between his house and the fire station where he worked before an overnight shift, Britt said, and then he’d run the same distance home the next day. “That’s why he was trying to run the marathon,” Britt said. “He was looking forward to qualifying in Chicago so he could run in the Boston Marathon.” [...]
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LONDON (AP & Staff) — Olympic champion LaShawn Merritt was cleared to defend his 400-meter title in London next year after the American won his appeal Thursday against an IOC rule banning doping offenders from the games. The Court of Arbitration for Sport invalidated the International Olympic Committee rule that bars any athlete who has received a doping suspension of more than six months from competing in the next summer or winter games. The three-man CAS panel said the rule, adopted in 2008, was “invalid and unenforceable” because it amounted to a second sanction and did not comply with the World Anti-Doping Agency code. It said the rule amounted to a “disciplinary sanction” rather than a matter of eligibility. Merritt, the American 400-meter gold medalist in Beijing, had been ineligible under the IOC rule to compete in London even though he completed his doping ban earlier this year after testing positive for a banned substance found in a male-enhancement product. The U.S. Olympic Committee challenged the rule and was backed by several other national Olympic and anti-doping bodies. The IOC maintained it had the right to decide who is eligible to take part in its games. The IOC said Thursday it “fully respects” the CAS verdict and will comply with it. However, the IOC said it would push for the rule to be included in a revised WADA code in 2013. The CAS decision means Merritt becomes eligible to compete in London, as do other athletes around the world who have been affected by the rule. “We’re obviously happy about that,” USOC CEO Scott Blackmun told The Associated Press. “LaShawn made an error that he even admitted was a silly error. We’re glad he’s going to be able to compete.” The verdict against the IOC also opens the door for athletes in Britain to challenge a British Olympic Association rule that bans drug offenders for life from the games. Among those affected by the British ban are sprinter Dwain Chambers, a former European 100-meter champion who served a two-year ban in the BALCO scandal, and cyclist David Millar, who also was suspended for two years for use of EPO. “The IOC has a zero tolerance against doping and has shown and continues to show its determination to catch cheats,” the IOC said in a statement. “We are therefore naturally disappointed since the measure was originally adopted to support the values [...]
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