The last place Pat Savage wants to be is in the limelight.
He even wore a blue DePaul athletics polo shirt to the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon to stay undercover as much as possible.
But there he was, in the spotlight for the second straight year as the marathon’s head referee.
Savage made a crucial yet non-controversial call in determining Sunday’s outcome in the men’s race.
In an unusual down-to-the-wire finish, Savage correctly decided that Patrick Ivuti had edged Jaouad Gharib by five-hundreths of a second for the closest finish in the race’s 30 years.
“I have never seen a marathon [finish] up close that was like that,” said Savage, who is DePaul’s track and field and cross-country coach. “It was really close. Yet at the same time, you could see that one man was ahead of the other man.”
No high-tech equipment is on hand at marathons, as there is at track meets. Most marathon finishes are obvious to the naked eye and decided by seconds, sometimes minutes.
Sunday was a little tougher.
“I think eventually we’ll have to go to the Accutrack, where it’s a picture,” Savage said.
Three officials with stopwatches keep time, along with electronic-chip timing. The clock showed both men finishing in 2 hours 11 minutes 11 seconds.
Savage said he was lucky to be in the correct place at the end of Sunday’s marathon, switching from the right to the left side of the course for a better view.
He remained in position to observe a close women’s race and stayed to watch the top 15 finishers cross in case he needed to make another close call.
Savage also was in place to make a critical call in last year’s marathon, when winner Robert K. Cheruiyot slipped at the finish line. Savage determined that Cheruiyot’s torso had crossed the plane before Daniel Njenga finished.
Extra miles
Three American men finished in the top 10. Michael Cox (2:21:42), Jason Flogel (2:26:34) and Eric Blake (2:26:55) were eighth, ninth and 10th, respectively. … Russian Alvetina Ivanova was a strong contender to win the women’s race. But after leading for the early stages, she quickly fell behind. She was reduced to walking after 23 miles before resuming running and finishing in 2:48:56. … Besides the strong third-place finish by American Kate O’Neill, Paige Higgins of Littleton, Colo., finished seventh in 2:40:14.
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World Marathon points
The top five men and women finishers at the Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago, New York, World Championship and Olympic Marathons earn points in a $1 million, two-year series to crown the World Marathon Majors champion. Men’s and women’s champions will both win $500,000. (Points awarded per race are: 1st-25; 2nd-15; 3rd-10; 4th-5 and 5th-1).
%% MEN CNTY PTS 1. Robert Cheruiyot Kenya 80 2. Haile Gebrselassie Ethiopia 50 3. Martin Lel Kenya 40 4. Felix Limo Kenya 35 5. Stephen Kiogora Kenya 25 5. Marilson Gomes dos Santos Brazil 25 5. Luke Kibet Kenya 25 5. Daniel Njenga Kenya 25 5. Patrick Ivuti Kenya 25
WOMEN 1. Gete Wami Ethiopia 65 2. Jelena Prokopcuka Latvia 55 2. Berhane Adere Ethiopia 55 4. Chunxiu Zhou China 40 5. Rita Jeptoo Kenya 35 5. Catherine Ndereba Kenya 35 Through Sunday %%
