MARATHON'S CHALLENGE IS A QUESTION OF TIME DIFFERENTIAL HAS BEEN SOURCE OF CONTROVERSY.Byline: Matthew Kredell Staff Writer After two years of tinkering tin·ker n. 1. A traveling mender of metal household utensils. 2. Chiefly British A member of any of various traditionally itinerant groups of people living especially in Scotland and Ireland; a traveler. 3. , the L.A. Marathon appears to have a time differential that could lead to some fireworks fireworks: see pyrotechnics. fireworks Explosives or combustibles used for display. Of ancient Chinese origin, fireworks evidently developed out of military rockets and explosive missiles and accompanied the spread of military explosives westward to at the finish line of the 21st running today. Lyubov Denisova Lyubov Denisova is a Russian marathon runner that tested positive for an elevated testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio — the same finding that derailed 2006 Tour de France champion Floyd Landis [1]. nearly dropped out of the race last year when the differential was announced for what is now called the Banco Popular Challenge, which gives the elite women a head start over the men and awards the first runner to cross the finish line a large bonus. Denisova, of Russia, went on to win the women's side in course-record time but still finished 46 seconds behind the men's winner, Mark Saina of Kenya. She was all smiles Friday when this year's differential of 16:46 was revealed at a news conference at Manual Arts High. The time was arrived at by subtracting the L.A. Marathon men's record time of 2:09:25 from her record mark of 2:26.11. ``We feel it's the fairest time which could happen,'' said Andrey Baranov, Denisova's manager and interpreter A high-level programming language translator that translates and runs the program at the same time. It translates one program statement into machine language, executes it, and then proceeds to the next statement. . ``Last year, she was surprised negatively about the time differential. This year, she was surprised in a positive way.'' Last year, a complicated computer analysis spit out Verb 1. spit out - spit up in an explosive manner splutter, sputter cough out, cough up, expectorate, spit up, spit out - discharge (phlegm or sputum) from the lungs and out of the mouth 2. a time of 15:50 that gave the women virtually no chance of winning. In 2004, the first year of the challenge, the average of the male winners in all previous L.A. Marathons was compared to the female average to create a time of 20:30 that gave the men no hope. ``I think it's fair,'' Saina said. ``I think it's really a little in the ladies' favor, but the way they arrived at it is fair.'' If this had been the differential last year, Denisova would have won the challenge by 10 seconds. In fact, the difference between the top men and women finishers in the two years of the challenge has been 16:36. ``Once you put that second point on the graph, we can draw a line,'' said commentator Toni Reavis, who helped come up with the idea for the challenge and was part of the group that decided on the time difference. ``You can't draw a line with one dot, so the first year didn't tell us much. After the second year, we could put a marker down. When the second year was exactly the same, we said, 'This tells us something. We're in the ballpark here.' '' The challenge creates the potential for an exciting finish to the Marathon, as well as giving extra incentive for elite runners to compete by giving a $100,000 bonus to the overall winner. The bonus has increased by $25,000 in each year of its existence. The gimmick is helping to vault vault, ceiling over a room, formed in any one of a variety of curved shapes. Nature of Vaults A vault is generally composed of separate units of material, such as bricks, tiles, or blocks of stone, so shaped or cut that when assembled they form a the L.A. Marathon into the upper echelon of marathons, alongside Boston, New York Boston is a town in Erie County, New York, United States. The population was 7,897 at the 2000 census. The town is named after Boston, Massachusetts. The Town of Boston is an interior town of the county and one of the county's "Southtowns. City, Chicago, London and Paris. ``It's attractive to business, TV rating and sponsors, and gives more prize money for the winners,'' Baranov said. ``The L.A. Marathon is growing every year and becoming one of the top marathons in the world.'' Saina will be challenged by fellow Kenyans such as John Kagwe, the 1999 New York City Marathon The New York City Marathon is an annual marathon foot-race run over a 42,195 m (26.2 mile) course through all five boroughs of New York City. It is the largest marathon race in the world, and with 37,866 finishers in 2006, was also the largest marathon race ever run. champion, Laban Kipkemboi, third at L.A. last year, and Robert Kiprotich Cheruiyot. On the women's side, two-time champion Denisova will face a stiff test from Gete Wami Gete Wami (born December 11, 1974 in Debre Berhan) is a female Ethiopian cross country and track runner. Wami won the 2006 Berlin Marathon finishing in front of Alina Kosgei and Monika Drybulska on September 24. of Ethopia, running her first L.A. Marathon after winning three medals in distance running at the past two Olympics. Tatyana Pozdnyakova, who won the first challenge in 2004 and finished fifth last year, will compete less than a month after her 51st birthday. About 25,000 will follow the elite group on the 26.2-mile trek through the heart of Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. . Matthew Kredell, (818)713-3607 matthew.kredell(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 2 photos, 2 boxes, map Photo: (1 -- color) About 25,000 are expected to compete in today's 21st running of the Los Angeles Marathon The Los Angeles Marathon is an annual marathon held in Los Angeles, California since 1986. It was inspired by the success of the 1984 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles. The race starts at about 8:15AM and runs through Downtown Los Angeles, Koreatown, the Crenshaw district, and . Daily News (2) Lyubov Denisova won the women's side of the marathon laast year, setting a course-record time of 2 hours, 26.11 seconds. Stephen Dunn/Getty Images Box: (1) AND THEY'RE OFF (2) TAPE DELAY Map: 2006 L.A. MARATHON XXI Warren Huskey/Staff Artist |
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