Now I know exactly how it is how it feels

Now I know exactly how it is, how it feels.”Until El Mouaziz, who had prepared for the race in the Moroccan training camp at Ifrane, high up in the Atlas Mountains, made his second and final break with just over four miles remaining, Tergat had lived up to his nickname of “The Ghost” as he had hovered within reach of the lead with apparent ease.The Moroccan’s first break, which happened on Tower Bridge just before the halfway mark, was covered by Portugal’s defending champion, Antonio Pinto, who had learned to his cost the folly of letting El Mouaziz get too big a lead when he had failed to catch him in 1999.But when the muscular Moroccan made his second effort, only Tergat could respond. “I was waiting for Pinto,” Tergat said, “but when I checked behind me there was nothing. It was just him and me, and it became very difficult.”El Mouaziz ran clear to finish in a personal best of 2:07.11 ­ 21sec slower than the time set by Kenya’s Josephat Kiprono in Rotterdam yesterday ­ before sinking to his knees and kissing the tarmac of The Mall “I had some problems during the race with my feet,” he said. “But I tried to mask the pain.”Pain registered occasionally on Tulu’s face for 20 miles of a strongly contested women’s event as she strove to remain in contact with Romania’s Olympic marathon silver medallist, Lydia Simon, who had indicated her intention to run a time close to 2hr 20 min.That was six minutes faster than Tulu had ever run before, but it proved to be too great an ambition in a race largely shaped by the varying fortunes of the defending champion, Tegla Loroupe.The diminutive Kenyan fell a minute behind the leading pack after being forced to pull up after three miles because of hamstring problems caused by a persistent back injury.

At 17 miles, Loroupe was still as far behind, but as she speeded up and the group of six runners ahead slowed, she was able ­ against all expectation ­ to rejoin the front runners, towing with her a small and grateful group which included the eventual silver medallist, Svetlana Zakharova, of Russia. But by 21 miles, the pace began to slacken, which prompted Tulu to start her long drive for the line.Two miles from the end, Loroupe, exhausted by her extraordinary efforts, dropped away and a group of five ­ Tulu, her fellow countrywoman Elfenesh Alemu, Simon, Zakharova, and Loroupe’s training partner, Joyce Chepchumba ­ ran together until Tulu made her decisive dash for home over the final mile.”I was determined to win after losing four marathons,” said Tulu, who had worked on her endurance running in the preceding months at the national training camp near her home in Addis Ababa. She trained not with the women but with the men.Britain’s hopes of making an impact on either race appeared to have disappeared when Jon Brown, who was fourth in the Olympics, dropped out ­ bearing his No 13 ­ before halfway with a hip problem.But Mark Steinle who had finished 11th here on his debut at the distance last year, produced another richly promising display by moving steadily through the field to finish sixth in 2:10.46. The time was a personal best, but the 26-year-old from Tonbridge in Kent ­ who has benefited for the last couple of years from sleeping in an oxygen tent to simulate altitude training ­ was unsparing in his assessment.”It’s not a world-class time,” he said, sipping a cup of tea with four sugar lumps in it. “You’ve got to look at sub 2:09 to start thinking of yourself as a proper marathon runner.”LEADING LONDON MARATHON RESULTSMEN1 A El Mouaziz (Mor) 2hr 07:11sec2 P Tergat (Ken) 2:08:153 A Pinto (Por) 2:09:364 T Jifar (Eth) 2:09;455 J Kosgei (Ken) 2:10:456 M Steinle (GB) 2:10:467 T Inubushi (Japan) 2:11:428 A Anton (Sp) 2:11:579 H Ramaala (SA) 2:12:0210 G Thys (SA) 2:12:0211 M Hudspith (GB) 2:13:1312 J Mereng (Ken) 2:13:2613 M El Hattab (Mor) 2:14:2714 A Shemweta (Swe) 2:15:3415 E Wainana (Ken) 2:15:4316 C Kirkwood (NZ) 2:16:2517 S Pride (GB) 2:16:2718 D Makori (Ken) 2:17:0919 B Burns (GB) 2:18:2920 R Holladay (GB) 2:19:2621 R Jones (GB) 2:19:27; 22 B Royden (Gb) 2:19:32; 23 N Francis (GB) 2:20:00; 24 M Alahyan (unattached) 2:20:23; 25 J Dwyer (Aus) 2:20:28.WOMEN1 D Tulu (Eth) 2:23:572 S Zakharova (Rus) 2:24:043 J Chepchumba (Ken) 2:24:124 L Simon (Rom) 2:24:155 E Alemu (Eth) 2:24:296 N Olaru (Rom) 2:25:187 A Ivanova (Rus) 2:25:348 T Loroupe (Ken) 2:26:109 A Fernandez (Mex) 2:26:2210 M Biktagirova (Rus) 2:27:1211 M Renders (Bel) 2:28:3112 H Hiroyama (Japan) 2:29:0113 L Vassilevskaya (Rus) 2:31:3614 I Bogachava (Rus) 2:32:2815 T Duffy (Irl) 2:35:2716 L MacDougall (GB) 2:37:2017 B Hartigan (GB) 2:37:4518 S Cedillo (Mex) 2:38:5319 T Jones (Can) 2:39:1020 M Adachi (Japan) 2:41:3521 M Moon (NZ) 2:41:58; 22 D Robinson (GB) 2:42:19; 23 L Watson (GB) 2:43:49; 24 R Joseph (Tan) 2:43:52; 25 V Pincombe (GB) 2:43:52.WHEELCHAIRMEN1 D Lemeunier (Fr) 1hr 42:37sec2 K Papworth (GB) 1:44:543 D Weir (GB) 1:50:554 T Patel (GB) 1:50:565 C Madden (GB) 1:53:236 R Powell (GB) 2:02:317 B Krol (GB) 2:06:478 E Grazier (GB) 2:08:019 M Telford (GB) 2:08:0810 J Hanks (GB) 2:09:5211 A Cheek (GB) 2:09:5512 F Pierre (Fr) 2:10:9913 P Hunt (GB) 2:13:5614 G Rappe (Neth) 2:20:57; 15 S Riggs (GB) 2:21:20; 16 G Allan (GB) 2:25:52; 17 K Suttie (GB) 2:27:18; 18 I Hussain (GB) 2:27:18; 19 R Moryc (Pol) 2:35:10; 20 N Diatchenko (GB) 2:37:09.WOMEN1 T Grey Thompson (GB) 2:13:552 D Brennan (GB) 2hr 36.503 M Rice (Irl) 3:14:37Only three finishers. Surbiton and Slough claimed their places in next season’s European Club Championship campaigns as a result of their wins in the Premiership finals at the Milton Keynes National Stadium yesterday. Surbiton and Slough claimed their places in next season’s European Club Championship campaigns as a result of their wins in the Premiership finals at the Milton Keynes National Stadium yesterday.

Surbiton owed their 1-0 success to an outstanding display of goalkeeping from David Luckes and, as so often this season, from a penalty corner goal from their South African striker Greg Nichol.
Slough eventually overcame by 3-1 a stubborn Ipswich side, in which goalkeeper Natalie Westcar was outstanding, to seal their return to Europe after a gap of one year. In a dull game, all the goals came from set piecesAs a result of these play-offs Reading and Fyffes Leicester, who won the National Leagues, will now have to go into Europe in the Cup-Winners’ Cup second level tournament.. Lennox Lewis, like George Foreman 27 years before him, thought he could whistle his way past an African graveyard reserved for dominant world heavyweight champions. Lennox Lewis, like George Foreman 27 years before him, thought he could whistle his way past an African graveyard reserved for dominant world heavyweight champions.
It was a presumption from which he was savagely separated here in the early hours of yesterday morning when Hasim Rahman, a lightly considered 28-year-old from Baltimore, knocked him out in 2min 32sec of the fifth round with one of the most perfectly thrown punches in the history of heavyweight action. It was a blow which utterly disabled Lewis, took away his World Boxing Council, International Boxing Federation and International Boxing Organisation titles and now threatens, to say the least, his claim to a place in the pantheon of great champions.A similarly ferocious and accurate punch, thrown by another long-odds challenger, Oliver McCall, detached Lewis from a world title seven years ago in London and he insisted before this fight entitled “Thunder in Africa” that there was no danger of another fork of lightning.