2080 BC-RUN--Chicago Marathon,0701 Tomescu-Dita seeks another prize after taking gold sptd/rfreeman By ANDREW SELIGMAN AP Sports Writer CHICAGO (AP) _ As she entered the Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing, Constantina Tomescu-Dita glanced back. Then, it hit her. The Olympic gold medal was about to be hers, and when she reached the stand, she could hardly contain her emotions. "I can't believe I have the gold medal in my hands," Tomescu-Dita said. "I was at the podium and I wanted to start crying." Just seven weeks after becoming the oldest Olympic champion, the Romanian will try to capture her second Chicago Marathon on Sunday. On the men's side, Kenyan Daniel Njenga will attempt to break through after three second and third-place finishes. And race organizers will simply hope for a relatively uneventful day after wild scenes the past two years. In 2006, men's champion Robert Cheruiyot of Kenya spent two nights in a hospital with a concussion after he slipped as he crossed the finish line on a rainy day. Last year, with sweltering humidity and temperatures soaring into the high 80s, the race was stopped after about four hours. Organizers were accused of not supplying enough water, and some 50 people were hospitalized. A 35-year-old man died, although coroners blamed it on a heart condition called mitral valve prolapse and said tests showed no evidence he was dehydrated. The weather channel was predicting partly cloudy skies with temperatures in the high 70s for Sunday _ not ideal, but manageable. The heat got to Njenga, who hopes to break an odd pattern of second-place finishes in 2002, '04 and '06 and third-place showings last year along with 2003 and '05. Based in Japan, he started training earlier than usual in July and has been working out three times a day. "I'm hoping Sunday is going to be my year," he said. He won't have to contend with last year's winner Patrick Ivuti of Kenya or runner-up Jaouad Gharib of Morocco. Ivuti is injured and Gharib is sitting this one out after taking the silver medal at the Olympics, but the field still is deep. Continued... |