Cheruiyot looking for fourth win

Kenyan holder Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot will seek a fourth Boston Marathon title in six years tomorrow and a chance to run at the Beijing Olympics in August.

The lanky 29-year-old, who set a course record of two hours seven minutes and 14 seconds on Boston's infamous hills in 2006, faces a handful of his countrymen in a race Kenya has dominated since 1991.

No elite US runners entered this year because the course is tough and the race comes a day after the nation's top women compete for three spots on the US Olympic team.

Deena Kastor, who won bronze at the 2004 Athens Games, is heavily favoured to win today's women's trials on a course through Boston and nearby Cambridge along the Charles River.

Five past Olympians, including 50-year-old Joan Benoit Samuelson, are among the 181 women who qualified to race today. But only about six have a real chance to make the US team according to Amby Burfoot, of Runner's World.

"Deena is clearly the best female runner in the country, so if she doesn't make the top three it would be a disaster," said editor-at-large Burfoot, who won the Boston Marathon 40 years ago.

Boston, the world's oldest annually contested marathon, may also be an Olympic trial for Kenya's top runners.

Last week, Martin Lel beat fellow Kenyan Sammy Wanjiru in a sprint finish in London and likely locked up one of three spots to represent Kenya in Beijing.

That puts pressure on Cheruiyot and James Kwambai, second in Boston last year, to turn in quick times.

As the runners compete for a fattened prize purse of $796,000 - 38 per cent bigger than last year - Cheruiyot will also battle to become the first Kenyan man to score four Boston wins after three men have won three titles each.

In the women's race, Kenyan Rita Jeptoo, who won Boston in 2006, is also vying for a spot on the national team.

She will face last year's Boston champion Lidiya Grigoryeva, from Russia, and Latvia's Jelena Pro-kopcuka, who are considered the strongest contenders.

This year there are few weather-related worries amid forecasts for cool and cloudy conditions tomorrow with a high of 13°C.