Olympic champ joins Boston field

Olympic champ joins Boston field

BOSTON, Massachusetts (AFP): Korea's Hwang Young-jo and defending champion Cosmas Ndeti of Kenya were among 26 runners announced Tuesday as participants in the 98th Boston Marathon.

The April 18 race will be Hwang's first competition outside of Korea since he won the 1992 Olympic marathon in two hours, 13 minutes and 23 seconds. Hwang, 24, set the Korean national marathon mark of 2:08:47 in Japan in 1992.

Ndeti, 24, surprised the field here a year ago, winning in only his second marathon with a time of 2:09:33. He was second in the Honolulu Marathon last year in 2:13:40 after making his debut with a runner-up finish there in 1992.

Another Kenyan challenger will be Moses Tanui, 28, who won the 1991 world title at 10,000 meters and finished second in the event at the 1993 world championships. He was 10th at New York last year in 2:15:36 in his marathon debut.

Also joining were former world record holder Steve Jones of Wales and South Africa's Gert Thys, whose 2:09:31 in Fukuoka, Japan, was fourth-best in the world last year.

Mexico's top contenders, Andres Espinosa and Arturo Barrios, also signed on. Espinosa, 31, won the New York Marathon last year after two straight runner-up finishes while Barrios, 32, is a former world record holder who took third at New York last year.

Others signing on for the race were Kenyans Zabron Miano, Benson Maysa, Josphat Ndeti, Boniface Merande, Sammy Lelei and Ezikiel Bitok, Lee Bong-Ju of Korea, Alejandro Cruz of Mexico, Germany's Stephen Freigang, Namibia's Lucketz Swartbooi, South Africa's David Tsebe, Brazil's Luiz Antonio Dos Santos, Spain's Antonio Pena, Russia's Andrei Tarasov, Portugal's Joaquim Pinheiro and US runners Keith Brantly, Mark Coogan, Chris Fox and Bob Kempainen.