Six months after Kenyan Martin Lel had out-kicked Abderrahim Goumri down the stretch to win the London Marathon, the duo raced stride-for-stride for the final three miles of yesterday’s New York City Marathon. Same runners, same result.
Lel out-kicked the young Moroccan, finishing in 2:09.04 to Goumri’s 2:09.16.
“I think I can say (I am the best),” Lel said. “My coach told me you are now the best. In London it was terrible tactically but I managed to win. I won a tactical race here, and my manager said you can say right now you are the best.”
It was no surprise to see the first New York City Marathon without pacesetters turn tactical, with a 14-man pack eyeing each other warily until notorious front-runner Hendrick Ramaala of South Africa (third in 2:11:25) pushed the pace, as he always does.
After his historic 4:21 on First Ave. in 2005, he turned in a 4:26 yesterday, but it didn’t help. He couldn’t break the pack until he, Lel and Goumri broke away on Mile 23. But he fell apart the next mile, falling half-a-minute back.
“That’s how I run,” said Ramaala. “I don’t know how to make a pace.”
It was a two-man duel down Five Ave., across Central Park South and even deep into the park itself, until Lel finally pulled away in the final third of a mile.
“(Goumri) gave me a headache, especially approaching 25 miles. I tried to use tactics when I was in front. I tried to slow down to make sure this guy (took the lead and expended energy), but he became a problem,” Lel said. “So I tried even harder. There are many ways of killing a rat.”
Lel had won here in 2003, in London in 2005 and again this April, when he out-kicked Goumri over the last 100 by three seconds. But that had been the marathon debut for the Moroccan, who said fasting during Muslim holy month of Ramadan hurt his training.
Lel, who negative-split the race but ran two seconds slower than Olympic trials champ Ryan Hall had Saturday, earned $160,000 with the win. Robert Cheruiyot, who didn’t run yesterday, already had clinched the Marathon Major Series title.
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Lance Armstrong ran 2:46:43 after a 2:59.36 debut last year. “I did better than last year,” Armstrong said. “I started faster and realized I was either going to finish OK or be crawling home. I decided to go for it.” . . . Rangers goalie Mike Richter broke his four-hour target with a 3:54.38. “It was fast in the beginning, (so-so) in the middle and it hit me hard in the end,” Richter said. “I was at eight-minute pace and people were going by me like a bicycle on the highway.” . . . Actress Katie Holmes, Tom Cruise’s wife, finished in 5:29.58. She entered the race using the name of Katie Smith. . . . U.S. women ran sixth, seventh, ninth and 10th, led by Elva Dryer’s 2:35.15.
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An autopsy of Ryan Shay was inconclusive after the 28-year-old collapsed during the trials and was pronounced dead at Lenox Hill.