Tergat wins classic in New York

WORLD record holder Paul Tergat added the ING New York City Marathon to his long list of honours on Sunday but it needed a world record smallest winning margin to prise the title from defending champion Hendrick Ramaala.

After 26.2 miles of hard running it came down to the closest finish in marathon history as Tergat of Kenya and South African Ramaala duelled up the hill to the finish line in Central Park, sprinting side by side until the final strides when Tergat, debuting in New York, found that extra yard of speed to breast the tape first in two hours nine minutes 29.9 seconds as his rival fell to the ground on the finish line just 0.32 seconds behind.

There were mixed fortunes for the Irish contingent with Marie Davenport happy to claim 18th place on her marathon debut, just outside her target time of 2:32 with a time of 2:33:59, but Mark Carroll and debutant Vinny Mulvey both retired.

Carroll fell victim to a problem with his right hip and was forced to pull out at 19.5 miles but he will have been encouraged with his performance to that point as he had been travelling well with the front runners and leading at the halfway stage.

There was also a first-time winner in the women’s race, as Latvia’s Jelena Prokopcuka shook off last year’s runner-up Susan Chepkemei to claim the largest first prize in marathon history with a cheque for $130,000 - Tergat collected $100,000. Prokopcuka’s winning margin was just 14 seconds, the third smallest in the women’s race’s 36 years as she clocked 2:24:41 and marked the second year in a row that Chepkemei had been edged out of the running with the finish line in sight.

The Kenyan had come close to defeating world record holder Paula Radcliffe of Great Britain in 2004 only to lose by three seconds and there was more heartbreak on Sunday as she took second place for the third time in her four starts in New York. Ethiopia’s Derartu Tulu was third in 2:25:21.

Tergat, 36, set the world marathon record in Berlin in 2003 with a time of 2:04.55.

By 21 miles, Ramaala and Tergat were in a four-man group with Kenya’s Robert Cheruiyot and American Meb Keflezighi and when they hit Central Park the two challengers were dropped and the duel began.