Khalid Khannouchi (© Getty Images)
Chicago, USA“I would be really happy if Chicago could get the World record back,” said Khalid Khannouchi ahead of Sunday’s 27th running of the LaSalle Banks Chicago Marathon (10 Oct). “This race is set for fast times.”
World record target
While everyone is touting the match-up between Khannouchi, who has won the Chicago race four times, and defending champion Evans Rutto of Kenya, Khannouchi says that there are at least “five or six guys” who could win the race.
With four other Kenyans with personal bests under 2:07:07, and a strong Japanese contingent, the only thing that can be said for sure about the men’s race it that, weather permitting, it will be fast. The lead pacers have been asked to take the race out in 1:02:20 for the first half in order to take aim at Paul Tergat’s year-old mark of 2:04:55 set at last year’s Berlin Marathon.
Olympic fatigue a factor?
None of the women will be aiming at Paula Radcliffe’s World record, but each will be aiming to improve on their own PBs led by Russia’s defending champion Svetlana Zakharova and former two-time Chicago winner (1998/99), Joyce Chepchumba of Kenya. But Zakharova and last year’s Chicago runner-up Constantina Tomescu-Dita of Romania both face the difficult task of recovering from their participation in the recent Olympic Marathon in Athens. This factor might give the edge to Chepchumba and Japan’s Yasuko Hashimoto, or the USA’s Marla Runyan and Blake Russell, or a number of the seemingly endless supply of Russian women who have dominated the road racing scene in the US in recent years.
New faster course
All will have their sights set on fast times. “We’ve got a pretty good tradition here in Chicago of people running fast,” said executive race director Carey Pinkowski. Though Chicago has earned the nicknames, the Windy City or Second City, the winds have subsided and records have fallen frequently on the Chicago course, which was changed again last year at the suggestion of some of the elite athletes to make it even faster.
Some turns and open areas in the last few miles, the result being a course that is at least 30 seconds faster than before, said Khannouchi’s wife and coach, Sandra Khannouchi. “They took away my tunnel,” joked Khannouchi of one stretch of the course that was eliminated. The tunnel was a point where the road passed underneath the McCormick Place convention center, a little more than a mile from the finish. It was the spot where Khannouchi took the lead in two of his victories at Chicago.
The Target
Though there will be no tunnel, Khannouchi hopes to use the Chicago race to restart his marathon career after a near career threatening foot injury that has kept him out of action at the distance. More importantly, he says, he provides a “target” for the other runners to go after. “They are motivated to beat me,” Khannouchi, who has been the king of the Chicago course since 1997. He acknowledges that this is a good thing because his rivalry with Rutto is good for the sport, and the motivation it provides for the pair and those challenging them can only lead to better performances.
Khannouchi has set the standard high, as his course record of 2:05:42 is the fourth fastest time in history. And on Sunday, the king of Chicago as well as those aiming to take over the throne will be aiming below that time in the hope of writing a new chapter in the tradition that began 20 years ago when Wales’ Steve Jones set the first of his two World bests in the Chicago with a time of 2:08:05.
How far they have come in a mere two decades.
Jim Ferstle for the IAAF
