CHICAGO 12 Oct. 1998

Ondoro Osoro won the Chicago Marathon on October 11, with the fastest debut marathon of all time, and the third fastest in history with a 2:06:54 time in the 26.2-mile (42.1-km) race.

The unheralded 30-year-old Kenyan surged past defending champion Khalid Khannouchi of Morocco in the final mile of the race.

Khannouchi's 2:07:10 clocking set in Chicago in 1997 had been the fastest first-time marathon. He hung on to finish second on Sunday in 2:07:19 despite a cramped calf muscle and sore ankle in his left leg.

South African Gert Thys duplicated his Boston Marathon finish by coming in third in a personal-best 2:07:43. Another relatively unknown Kenyan, Joseph Kuhugu, was fourth in 2:07:57, which lopped more than three minutes off his best time. The marathon was first in history to have four men run faster than 2:08.

Joyce Chepchumba, 27, of Kenya was the women's champion in 2:23:57, the third-fastest time in the world this year. Chepchumba passed pace-setting Colleen DeReuck of South Africa in the 22nd mile.

Although she struggled in the final miles, she won by a significant margin over DeReuck (2:27:04) and South African Elana Mayer (2:27:20), both of whom tired badly.

Before his breakthrough in Chicago, Osoro had been known as a track and cross-country athlete and the longest road race he had run was 11.6 miles (18.7 kms). He was ranked as the sixth-best road racer of 1997 by one prominent American running publication. While his performance was surprising to many, it wasn't a shock to Osoro.

Ondoro earned 55,000 dollars for his first-place finish and a 50,000 dollars bonus for breaking the event record. GRi