Monday, January 31, 2011

Win, win again for Ethiopia

By DALE ROBERTSON

When the two top runners expected for the Chevron Houston Marathon were forced from the field because of visa problems, a changing of the guard seemed possible, if not imminent.
At the very least, a door opened for an American, Brett Gotcher, to have a chance to win, which last happened in 2002 when no elite foreign athletes participated because there was no prize money offered. Gotcher, in fact, was seeded first based on a brilliant showing in his debut marathon here last year.
Still, as long as any East African toes the starting line, an official bib pinned to his — or her — jersey, it figures to be an uphill slog, so Gotcher didn’t hit the road suffering from excessive delusions of grandeur.
“But I felt good early on, (for) about 15 miles,” he said. “I was focused. I did the same training as last year. Right now, it’s hard to pinpoint what went wrong.”

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