Ivuti and Adere clinch Chicago Marathon victories with dramatic sprints
International Association of Athletics Foundation, Monaco - October 7, 2007
The 30th running of the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon turned into a sprint as both the men's and women's winners won in dramatic, but very different ways.
Men's winner Patrick Ivuti of Kenya won a see-saw duel with two-time World Marathon champion Jaouad Gharib of Morocco by finding just enough to surge past Gharib at the tape in 2:11:11. Both were given the same time with Ivuti's margin of victory being five one hundreths of a second. Defending women's champion Berhane Adere of Ethiopia made up 30 seconds in the last two kilometres, most of it down the 385 yard finishing straight to blow past a shocked Adriana Pirtea of Romania in the final 50 metres to win by three seconds in 2:33:49.
Pirtea seemed to be on her way to a comfortable victory in her debut marathon, waving to the crowd and oblivious to the fact that Adere was sprinting at top speed down the homestretch. On her toes and in full flight, Adere, flashed past the celebrating Pirtea, passing several men in the process and missing the finish tape that had been stretched out for Pirtea. By the time the Romanian, who had attended the University of Texas, El Paso in the US, realized that Adere was anywhere near her, it was too late ...