Hussein Has a Dash Left at Boston : With 100-Meter Kick, Kenyan Beats Tanzanian by Only One Second

When most of the runners in the Boston Marathon finally reach Kenmore Square on Beacon Street after 25 grueling miles, they know it’s almost over. But for the very few running to win, it can also be where the race begins.

That was never more true than it was Monday, when Ibrahim Hussein of Kenya and Juma Ikangaa of Tanzania matched each other, stride for stride, in the final mile down Beacon Street, on to Boylston Street to the finish.

“With one mile to go, I looked at Ikangaa and he looked at me,” Hussein said. “And I knew it was going to be decided in the last 100 meters.”

He was right. The Kenyan, who had consecutive victories in both the New York City and Honolulu marathons last year, dug down somewhere in those closing moments and managed to out-kick his fellow African across the finish line by only one second, the closest Boston finish ever.

Hussein, who had never run a marathon faster than 2 hours 11 minutes 1 second, improved his own best time by more than 2 minutes, running 2:08:43. Ikangaa was a hair’s breadth behind, posting 2:08:44.

“I think this will convince a lot of people that I can win, even if it’s a close race,” Hussein said.

The Boston course record of 2:07:51, set in the 1986 race, is held by Australian Rob de Castella.

Hussein said he gave little thought to the stunning 2:06:50 world record set Sunday in Rotterdam, Netherlands, by Ethiopian Belayneh Dinsamo, who bettered by 22 seconds the 1985 time of 2:07:12 set by Portugal’s Carlos Lopes on the same course.

“Every course is different,” Hussein said. “In Rotterdam, the course is very flat and very fast. Here, the hills take a little out of it. I wanted to win this race. I didn’t think about the world record.”

Ireland’s John Treacy, who stayed with the two Africans until about the 23rd mile, was third in 2:09:15.

Hussein won $45,000 and a Mercedes-Benz worth more than $35,000. Ikangaa won $22,000, and Treacy won $15,000.

The women’s race was easily won, for the second consecutive year, by Portugal’s Rosa Mota in 2:24:30. Tuija Jousimaa of Finland was second in 2:29:26, and Odette La Pierre of Canada was third in 2:30:35.

The women’s prize money structure is identical to the men’s.

“I’m so happy to win for the second time,” Mota said, noting that she came within a minute of her best time, 2:23:29, the third-fastest ever by a woman. “I think at the halfway that perhaps I can run my fastest time, but I stay very happy with my time,” she said.

The women’s course record of 2:22:43 was set by Joan Benoit Samuelson in 1983 and stood as a world record until 1985, when Norwegian Ingrid Kristiansen ran 2:21:06 in London.

Priscilla Welch of Great Britain, who holds the women’s masters world record of 2:26:51 and who won the women’s race overall in last year’s New York City Marathon, was fourth overall in 2:30:53 and first in the masters division.

The men’s masters race was won by Ryszard Marczak of Poland in 2:17:53. He edged sentimental favorite and 4-time overall Boston winner Bill Rodgers, who ran 2:18:17.

More than 6,700 runners lined up in Hopkinton for the 92nd running of the 26.2-mile race. Weather conditions were nearly ideal with windless, overcast skies, an intermittent drizzle and a temperature of 49 degrees at the start, climbing to the mid-50s by the end of the race.

The elite runners took off at a blistering pace, seduced perhaps by the early downhill mile. A lead pack of more than a dozen covered the first 10 miles in 47:57 and reached the half at 1:03:10, well under world-record pace.

By the 15th mile, as the runners sped downhill out of Wellesley and approached Newton, the pack had been reduced slightly to seven: Ikangaa, Hussein, Treacy, Steve Jones of Great Britain, Gianni Poli of Italy, Nechchadi El-Mustapha of Morocco and Jose Gomez of Mexico.

They stayed together to the firehouse in Newton that marked a 90-degree right turn and the approach of the four notorious hills known collectively as Heartbreak Hill. It is a stretch that has broken many a runner.

There, the pack began to string out for the first time.

“We hit the hills and I felt I was real strong,” Hussein said. “I decided to let somebody else do the work and sit behind.”

The hills took their usual toll. By the third hill, the pack of seven had become a pack of four, including Treacy and El-Mustapha. After the last hill, the Moroccan fell back, eventually finishing 37th.

Italians Gelindo Bordin, Poli and Orlando Pizzolato finished fourth, fifth and seventh, respectively, with times of 2:09:27, 2:09:33 and 2:12:32. Jones, of Great Britain, who has run 2:07:13, the third-fastest time ever, faded to ninth, running 2:14:07.

Treacy, the 1984 Olympic marathon silver medalist, who also has a strong kick, clung to Ikangaa and Hussein until about the 23rd mile, falling behind and catching up, and then finally just falling behind for good.

“I thought if I could hang with them until the 25th mile, I could beat them over the last mile,” Treacy said. “But they just seemed to kind of inch away. They got away from me. They worked together and kept me at bay. They were both just stronger.

“They kept turning around to see where I was, trying to keep that gap the whole time,” Treacy added. “At 24 miles, I was really spent.”

But Treacy said that after his 14th-place finish last year at Boston, he considered his performance Monday a positive race.

“Last year was a nightmare for me,” he said. “I wanted to get a positive race in before Seoul. It will be good to go to Seoul with a positive frame of mind, rather than a negative one.”

Hussein said that part of his plan, as Treacy tenaciously hung on, was to tire the Irishman as soon as possible so that he would not be able to out-kick the two Africans over the last mile.

“(Ikangaa) was very relaxed, and he looked strong,” Hussein said. “I was worried a little, but I didn’t want to run in front of him. I thought he was going to push with one mile to go--and I didn’t want Treacy to be closer to us. I just wanted to concentrate on relaxing, and let Ikangaa do the work--and to stay with him.”

Hussein said that, during the last mile, he was waiting for Ikangaa to make the first move.

“I wanted him to kick, and then I said to myself, ‘I will kick and go for it,’ ” Hussein said.

Ikangaa indeed tried to kick, but was soon overtaken by Hussein. “I thought I had won the race,” Ikangaa said. “I didn’t even hear his shoes. I was a bit upset to be defeated with a few meters to go.”

Hussein said: “I put it into another gear. When he didn’t respond very much, I knew I had it.”

He added: “Winning New York and then winning Boston--there’s no accomplishment like that.”

Hussein, the first African to win the New York City Marathon, is now also the first African to win at Boston.

Reminded of that, he grinned.

“I like to write history,” he said.