Tergat nips Ramaala in photo finish
NEW YORK – Paul Tergat surged one last time, breaking the tape a heartbeat before defending champion Hendrick Ramaala fell across the finish line.
After more than two hours of running Sunday, the New York City Marathon came down to a final sprint and a third of a second – the closest finish in race history.
Tergat and Ramaala were side by side all morning, trading the lead for 26.2 grueling miles through New York’s five boroughs and across fog-shrouded bridges and leaf-strewn roads.
Tergat, a Kenyan who holds the world marathon record, and South Africa’s Ramaala jockeyed for the lead in Central Park. Tergat surged, then Ramaala, then Tergat again. Tergat’s official time was 2 hours, 9 minutes, 30 seconds, but the exact clocking was 2:09:29.90. Ramaala’s time was 2:09:30.22.
It was reminiscent of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where Tergat and Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie sprinted to the finish in the 10,000 meters. Gebrselassie managed one last dash in the final 30 meters, leaning to edge Tergat by nine-hundredths of a second.
This time, Tergat crossed the line first on a warm, sticky day. He was one of 37,516 competitors to start the race, a record for any marathon.
“The weather was incredible, very hot, but I was trying to keep cool. The least thing that I was expecting is that we were going to have to sprint to finish,” Tergat said. “It was really, really painful, we work until the last minute. It reminds me of the Olympics again, but I was not expecting that in a marathon, that sprint.”
Ramaala wasn’t sure whether he tried to dive across the finish line, or simply collapsed from exhaustion.
“I don’t remember,” he said. “You know, coming in second is not nice.
“The last hundred meters, who wants to go the last hundred meters with Paul? I gave it everything,” Ramaala said. “Paul didn’t want to lose, I didn’t want to lose.”
Meb Keflezighi finished third, the best finish by an American. But the U.S. victory drought at the New York race grew to 23 years.
Keflezighi, second last year in New York and a silver medalist at the 2004 Athens Olympics, fell behind in the final mile and finished third in 2:09.56. Fellow American Abdi Abdirahman was fifth and Matt Downin finished 11th.
“With a mile to go, my calf tied up and when they made the move I couldn’t accelerate. I thought I could pull it out, but third is not bad,” said Keflezighi, who is getting married in two weeks. “I was feeling great the whole way.”
The 36-year-old Tergat, one of 17 children, is the ninth straight African man to win in New York.