Day of the Repeat Champions

With four miles left, Moses Tanui was so far behind the leaders he couldn’t even see them.

With a relentless drive, Tanui kept surging, cutting into a quarter-mile deficit and finally catching the front-runners. Then, with a stunning kick over the final 200 meters, he gave Kenya an eighth consecutive Boston Marathon victory.

Regaining the title he won in Boston’s centennial race in 1996, Tanui, 32, rallied from as much as 48 seconds back with a powerful run, outkicking countryman Joseph Chebet.

“I was confident I could catch the leaders because they were running too fast,” Tanui said. “I caught them and I still had energy.”

The victory put the Kenyans within one of the record of nine victories in a row by Americans from 1916-25, when there were no Africans in the race. The 1918 race did not count because there was competition only among teams.

Tanui’s time of 2 hours, 7 minutes, 34 seconds, was the third-fastest in the race’s 102-year history, behind 1994 1-2 finishers Cosmas Ndeti of Kenya (2:07:15) and Andres Espinosa of Mexico (2:07:19).

It also was the fastest of Tanui’s career, bettering by more than one minute his clocking of 2:09:01 at the 1997 Chunchon Marathon in South Korea.

Chebet finished second at 2:07:37 and Gert Thys, trying to become the race’s first South African champion, was third at 2:07:52, making it the closest three-man finish. Next was Andre Ramos of Brazil at 2:08:26 and John Kagwe of Kenya at 2:08:51, giving the Kenyans three of the top five.

Ethiopia’s Fatuma Roba, the 1996 Olympic women’s gold medalist, also produced her fastest time, winning Boston for the second consecutive year in 2:23:21. Only Uta Pippig of Germany, with 2:21:45 in 1994, and Joan Benoit Samuelson, with 2:22:43, in 1983, ran faster.

The women’s race was decided early, with Roba breaking away from Colleen de Reuck of South Africa going down the Newton Hills between 16 and 17 miles.

Although Roba, 27, showed no signs of the right leg injury that forced her to drop out of the 1997 World Championships and limited her to a fourth-place finish at this year’s Tokyo Marathon, she said it slowed her down considerably.

“I had expected to make a record today, but unfortunately I had the pain, so my time wasn’t what I expected,” Roba said.

The women’s runner-up was Renata Paradowska of Poland at 2:27:15 and Anuta Catuna of Romania finished third at 2:27:32.

Libbie Hickman of Fort Collins, Colo., considered the only elite American in either the men’s or women’s field, finished 12th in her marathon debut in 2:35:37. But she was beaten by Mary-Lynn Currier of Plymouth, Mass., 11th at 2:35:18.

The first American man was Joseph McVeigh of Summit, N.J., 17th at 2:16:48.

Two favorites in the men’s race, three-time champion Ndeti and last year’s third-place finisher, Dionicio Ceron of Mexico, dropped out before 16 miles. Ndeti had stomach pain, while Ceron injured the inside of his right leg after stepping on a bottle at a water station.

Each winner received $80,000.

The men’s and women’s wheelchair winners were the same as last year--Franz Nietlispach of Switzerland in 1:21:52 and Louise Sauvage of Australia in 1:41:19. Nietlispach, the champion for third time in four years, won handily, but Sauvage had to rally from about 1,000 meters behind to beat seven-time champion Jean Driscoll of Champaign, Ill., by about a length.