38-year-old Romanian Constantina Tomescu Dita literally ran away with the Beijing Olympics women's marathon on Sunday (Saturday night in the West), finishing more than one minute ahead of the second place finisher.
Tomescu Dita pulled away with more than 10 miles to go, building a lead that a seven-runner pack behind her was unable to challenge at all. For much of the last few miles two Kenyans and two Chinese runners were battling for the silver and bronze. In the end, it was Catherine Nedereba of Kenya, one of today's most successful female marathoners, taking the silver and Chunxiu Zhou of China taking the bronze. The Chinese faithful were thrilled to see Zhou win a medal, and to see her compatriot Xiaolin Zhu finish fourth.
(You can find the complete Olympic women's marathon finish list here.
British marathoner Paula Radcliffe had another unsuccessful Olympic experience: she stopped several times but finished, visibly in pain.
The top American finisher was Blake Russell in 27th. Deena Kastor, the bronze medalist in Athens, did not finish.
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