Not Another Rosie: Boston Marathon OK’s Cheruiyot’s sidewalk path to course record

Cheruiyot’s sidewalk shuffle OK in Boston victory

BOSTON — He’s the next Robert Cheruiyot, not the next Rosie Ruiz.

Boston Marathon officials said Tuesday that Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot broke no rules when he popped onto the sidewalk to pass the leaders early in the race. He also shattered the course record held by four-time winner — and unrelated — Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot.

“There are no specific out-of-bounds areas,” Boston Athletic Association executive director Guy Morse said Tuesday, a day after Cheruiyot broke his fellow Kenyan’s record by 82 seconds. “It’s not like a tennis match.”

The Boston Marathon was the site of one of sports’ most famous cheating scandals 30 years ago when an unknown named Rosie Ruiz skipped part of the race and showed up at the finish line to claim victory. But Cheruiyot gained no unfair advantage from his four-second sidewalk shuffle, Morse said.

“He wasn’t cutting a corner or trying to gain some other advantage,” said Morse, who noted that runners are allowed to leave the course to go to the bathroom, for example, or if they are sick. “It doesn’t affect the outcome.”

Race referee Steve Vaitones did not immediately respond to e-mails seeking comment.

Different sports have different rules, of course, but also different senses of how rules are interpreted and applied.

Just a day earlier, golfer Brian Davis called a two-stroke penalty on himself in a sudden-death playoff at Hilton Head, S.C., when he inadvertently hit a loose reed in his backswing — indiscernible if not for slow motion replays. He immediately conceded the tournament to Jim Furyk.

But road racing is governed more by the spirit of the rules, and the primary issue is whether the runner gained any unfair advantage.

B.A.A. officials didn’t have to look too hard to see that Cheruiyot didn’t.

Cheruiyot finished in 2 hours, 5 minutes, 52 seconds — the fastest marathon ever run without a pacesetter. But Monday night, WBZ-TV aired video of Cheruiyot, hemmed in by a pack of about 20 runners, hopping over a curb and running on the sidewalk for about four seconds before popping back onto the street.

It was not immediately clear where the incident occurred, but it was at the top of a hill and probably on the first half of the course, before the pack thinned considerably. The most distinguishing characteristic of the location was that there was a man dressed as Santa Claus standing on the side of the road.

Cheruiyot, who speaks little English, said Tuesday he was not thinking about anything but getting up the hill and keeping pace with defending champion Deriba Merga.

“I did not want to run inside (with) people,” he said.

When Ruiz claimed her victory 30 years ago, race officials were immediately suspicious of an unknown who ran what would have been the third-fastest by a woman in history, and didn’t look all that tired or sweaty afterward.

There were no such concerns about Cheruiyot.

And, as evidence of their confidence, they presented him Tuesday with his giant check for $175,000 — the winner’s share plus a $25,000 bonus for the course record.

Organizers called the race one of their most successful, thanks in part to perfect marathon weather. Race director Dave McGillivray noted that a life was saved when a 64-year-old man was resuscitated by fellow runners and rescue workers after having a heart attack about a mile from the finish.

The only flaw was that hundreds of runners — including one of the contenders — weren’t able to make it to Boston because of ash from an Icelandic volcano that canceled thousands of flights across Europe.

McGillivray said he wrote himself a note for next year.

“Prepare better for volcanoes,” he said. “I really, really apologize for overlooking that this year.”