Jan. 24 2008
By David Monti
(c) 2008 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved - used with permission

Organizers of the Boston Marathon announced today that Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot and Lidiya Grigoryeva, their 2007 champions, planned to return to the race this year to defend their titles.

"We are very excited to have both of our defending champions returning for the 112th Boston Marathon," said Guy Morse, executive director of the Boston Athletic Association through a media release sent by John Hancock Financial, the principal sponsor of the race.  "Robert and Lidiya showed their strength by winning in difficult conditions in 2007.  We look forward to seeing how they follow up on those victories in 2008."

Cheruiyot, the 2006/2007 World Marathon Majors champion and Boston Marathon course record holder, got his third Boston victory in last year's windy and rainy race, crossing the finish line in 2:14:13, the slowest winning time in 30 years.  As in his previous Boston victories, Cheruiyot, 29, timed effort to perfection.

"I'd like to thank John Hancock for inviting me back to defend my title," said Cheruiyot who overcame homelessness and extreme poverty as a child to become one of the world's best athletes.  "I have had much success on the Boston course because the more difficult and competitive a race is, the more I commit myself to do my best."

For Grigoryeva, who turned 34 two days ago, Boston was the best victory of her career at any distance.  She showed amazing strength in the closing stages of the race, running the 25th mile in five minutes and ten seconds to win by 40 seconds over two-time ING New York City Marathon champion, Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia.

"Winning Boston was a career highlight for me," said Grigoryeva, a two-time Olympian at 10,000m.  "I am eager to compete again with the best runners in the world and thank John Hancock for the opportunity."

The Boston Marathon will actually be the second race of an extraordinary weekend of marathon running.  On Sunday, April 20, the USA Olympic Team Trials - Women's Marathon will be contested on a special criterium course through Boston's Back Bay and nearby Cambridge.  The top-3 women from that race will receive automatic berths on the U.S. Olympic team, assuming that they have met the IAAF qualifying standards for time.  The Boston Marathon follows the next day (the race is always held on the third Monday in April, a local holiday called Patriots Day) on the traditional course from Hopkinton to Back Bay.  Last year's race had 20,338 finishers out of 20,646 starters, a remarkable statistic considering that a significant coastal storm battered the Boston area from the day before right into the start of the race.

John Hancock Financial, a unit of Manulife Financial Corporation, has been the financial engine behind the Boston Marathon for 23 years, in one of the longest-running sponsorships in all of sport.  The Boston Athletic Association founded the event in 1897 and still owns and manages it.