SCOTLAND'S Liz McColgan recorded her sole victory in the London Marathon on April 22, 1996. Picking off runner after runner following a steady start, she coasted home alone over the last few miles.
The former Liz Lynch, double 10,000m gold medallist in the Commonwealth Games of 1986 and 1990 and the world 10,000m champion of 1991, was having her third outing in the race at the age of 31. She had previously won the New York and Tokyo Marathons i
n 1991 and 1992 respectively.
For months she had been training hard under the coaching of Grete Waitz, the legendary Norwegian who herself had twice won the London Marathon. That McColgan participated at all was something of a miracle, as her career had been threatened with a knee injury and she had been out of athletics for almost two years in 1993-94. She had had problems with her back, her knee and her foot – and doctors had told her she might never run again.
On an increasingly warm day – the temperature hit 21C – in humid conditions that should have favoured her African opponents such as Joyce Chepchumba of Kenya, McColgan held back at first.
At one stage she was more than two minutes behind Anita Haakenstad of Norway, who led for much the race. But McColgan gradually wore down the leaders and went to the front after the 20-mile mark before powering away in trademark fashion to win by more than two minutes from Chepchumba and 1995 winner Malgorzata Sobanska from Poland.
Her finishing time was 2 hrs, 27mins 54 seconds, well outside the record time but a terrific effort in the prevailing conditions. The victory earned McColgan an estimated £150,000 and she was expected to follow it up with a strong challenge for gold at that year's Olympics, though an infection from an insect bite affected her performance and she could only finish 16th at Atlanta.
The following year Chepchumba took away McColgan's London title with a late dash a few metres from the line, with just a second separating her and the Scot.
Ireland's Catherina McKiernan won in 1998, with McColgan again finishing runner-up in what was to be her final appearance in the London race.
• The Flora London Marathon 2008 gets under way at 8.30am. Live coverage on BBC1
The full article contains 398 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
