NYRR - If he wasn’t the least outspoken of athletes, Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot might make a legitimate claim to being the world’s best male marathoner. He’ll almost certainly soon have a more concrete claim: He holds an all-but-insurmountable lead in the inaugural two-year World Marathon Majors Series standings. He won the 2006 Boston Marathon in a course-record 2:07:14, then won the 2006 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon under bizarre and near-disastrous circumstances: He slipped, possibly on an advertising logo strip, in his final stride and suffered a mild concussion, bleeding inside his skull, and a small bruise to the front of his brain. Doctors predicted a complete recovery, and he gave credence to that with his repeat Boston win this past April in wet, windy conditions to virtually clinch the WMM title and its $500,000 purse.

Photo by Victah Sailor