Martin Lel and Irina Mikitenko win second World Marathon Majors Series championships

New York, NY -- Following today's ING New York City Marathon, Martin Lel (KEN) and Irina Mikitenko (GER) have captured the 2007-2008 World Marathon Majors Series championships. They will be honored at a special luncheon tomorrow, Monday, November 3, at The Boathouse in New York City.

Lel, the WMM Series runner-up in 2006-2007, clinched the 2007-2008 title by virtue of victories in the first three marathons he ran in the scoring period: the 2007 Flora London Marathon and ING New York City Marathon, followed by the 2008 Flora London Marathon. Lel then placed fifth in the Olympic Marathon in Beijing to increase his total to 76 points.

For the second consecutive year, the women's title was still up for grabs in the final race of the Series. Two women could have clinched the WMM title by a strong showing in the ING New York City Marathon this morning: Gete Wami (65 points) and Catherine Ndereba (41 points). Not entered in New York, but also in contention, was Irina Mikitenko (65 points).

With neither Ndereba (fifth today) nor Wami (sixth) clinching the victory, Wami and Mikitenko remained tied atop the leaderboard with 65 points. Under the rules of the WMM Series, the first tie-breaker is head-to-head competition however the two athletes each have beaten each other once. As a result, the champion is determined by a vote taken by the five race directors of the World Marathon Majors—and they have unanimously decided that the winner of the 2007-2008 Series is Mikitenko.

In reaching this decision, the race directors took into account the fact that Irina had achieved her points in fewer races and her average times across her scoring race were lower than Wami's.