Rodgers man to beat in Boston Marathon

Press, 20 April 1981, Page 14

Rodgers man to beat in Boston Marathon

NZPA-Reuter Boston Seven thousand runners from 33 countries will compete in the eighty-fifth annual- Boston Marathon tomorrow morning, with the fourtime winner, Bill Rodgers, of the United States, expected to be the man to heat.

Japan’ Toshiheko Seko is given a good chance of dethroning the 33-year-old Rodgers, who has struggled to regain his condition after a recent bout of influenza. Rodgers, who has won the Boston Marathon for the last three years, holds the record time in the event, finishing in 2hr 9min 27s in 1979. Sekd has won international recognition by winning the prestigious Fukuoka International Marathon in Japan for the last three years. ; Another strong contender among the 36 Japanese runners entered in the Boston event .is Hideki Kita, winner of the Tokyo Marathon in February with a time of 2:12.04.

fives range from a Canadian contingent of 346, including 1977 Boston Marathon winner, Jerome Drayton, to Saudi Arabia’s two-man team and a runner from the Cayman Islands. Of 18 runners from Britain, only Steve Kenyon and Dave Chettle are exected to draw special attention. Kenyon, a 29-year-old from Bolton, made his

American debut in 1979 when he ran third in the New York I City Marathon. Among the 674 women in the race, the defending champion, Jacqueline Gareau, of Montreal, who has been training in’ New Zealand, is expected to be hard pressed by Patti Catalano of Boston, and the 1979 winner, Joan Benoit, of Cape Elizabeth, Maine.