LEL IS YOUNGEST MAN EVER TO WIN FIVE MAJORS
By David Monti with Marty Post
(c) 2008 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved Editor's Note: We at LetsRun.com would like to point out that Frank Shorter was in our opinion the youngest to win 5 "majors". Shorter won the 1972 Olympics, and the 1971, 1972, 1973, and 1974 Fukuoka Marathons with the last one coming just after his 27th birthday. If the concept of a "Marathon Major" existed in the 1970s Fukuoka would have been perhaps at the top of the list. The official World Marathon Majors marketing arrangement (Boston, NY , London, Chicago, World Champs, and Olympics) did not exist until 2006. Lel has three wins since then.
The good news just keeps coming for Kenya's Martin Lel. The 29
year-old leader of the 2007/2008 World Marathon Majors points series
has become the youngest man ever to win five Majors events: London
three times and New York City twice.
Lel, who sprinted away from compatriot Samuel Wanjiru at the Flora
London Marathon last Sunday to win in a course record and personal best
2:05:15, is also the first man to achieve this career milestone before
age 30. The previous youngest five-time winner was Khalid Khannouchi,
running for both Morocco and the United States, who was 30 years 295
days when he won his fifth lifetime Major at the 2002 LaSalle Bank
Chicago Marathon.
American legend Bill Rodgers has won more Majors over a career than any
other man with eight. He won the New York City and Boston Marathons
four times, each.
Next Monday in Boston Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot can join Lel as another
five-time Majors champion. He's already won Boston three times and
Chicago once.