BOSTON, Massachusetts, April 20- Boston Marathon officials declared they will ask the IAAF to have Geoffrey Mutai's fastest-ever marathon effort run Monday sanctioned as a world record.
The move comes even though IAAF rules prevent any Boston Marathon effort being declared a world record because the course is technically downhill and offers the chance of tailwinds providing a boost to runners.
Mutai’s epic run of 2:03:02 would, if sanctioned, shatter the world record of 2:03:59 by Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia in 2008 at Berlin.
Officials of the 115-year-old race claim their course is not faster or easier than any other marathon layout, containing such famed climbs as "Heartbreak Hill", just because of the overall drop from start to finish.
But for record runs, the IAAF has regulations against downhill courses and point-to-point layouts such as the famed Boston run, instead sanctioning looped courses where any wind advantage would be negated.
The top four men’s finishers broke the old Boston course record of 2:05:52 set by Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot last year.
Meanwhile, Mutai and Caroline Kilel who won the women’s race in a career best 2:22:38 are expected to return home Wednesday evening with tens of relatives travelling from Eldoret to receive their heroes.
Mutai, who finished fifth at the World Cross Country Championships in Punta Umbria, Spain in March, won Boston after finishing runner-up to Patrick Makau at both Rotterdam and Berlin marathons last year, running his previous life time best of 2:04:55 in the former.
Kilel on the other hand, added the Boston title to the Frankfurt crown she won last year.
