From Boston.com – The Boston Athletic Association will ask the International Association of Athletics Federations to recognize Geoffrey Mutai’s winning time in Monday’s Boston Marathon as a world record for a 26.2-mile race, even though the course doesn’t conform to the ruling body’s standards because of its steep drop in elevation
“We’ll do it as much as anything out of respect for the guy who won the race,’’ stated executive director Tom Grilk, who said the BAA would file the standard form requesting that Mutai’s clocking of 2 hours 3 minutes 2 seconds be accepted as the new global mark.
Mutai, a 29-year-old Kenyan who had never seen the Boston course until last week, completed it nearly a minute faster than the recognized marathon record of 2:03:59 that Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie established for the same distance on Berlin’s flat course in 2008 with the help of runners hired to set a fast pace.
Although the IAAF includes Boston performances on its all-time list and acknowledges on its website that Mutai’s time is the “fastest marathon ever,’’ the federation will not recognize it as a world record because the course, by its standards, has an excessive elevation drop.
Nor will USA Track & Field, which generally follows international standards, certify Ryan Hall’s 2:04:58 as an American record, although the domestic federation will count Boston times toward qualification for the Olympic trials in Houston in January.
