Russia's Galina Bogomolova became the second fastest European women's marathon runner ever when she ran 2:20:47 at the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon on Sunday 22 October.

Britain's Paula Radcliffe, who holds the world record for the classic distance at 2:15:25, is the only European to have now gone faster than Bogomolova over 42km.

Romania's Constantina Tomescu-Dita, second at the IAAF World Road Running Championships in Hungary two weeks ago, made her usual fast start in a bid to become only the second European to run under 2:20.

She was running close to Radcliffe's world record pace for almost 15km, which she went through in 48:14, before slowing, although she was still nearly two minutes ahead of the field at 30km.

However, her audacious early pace and the cold. gusting, winds began to tell from that point. The chasing pack, which included Bogomolova, soon began to close the gap on Tomescu-Dita and by 35km her lead was down to 50 seconds.

Just after 37km, Bogomolova and Ethiopia's Berhane Adere went past the flagging Romanian and commenced their own private duel for victory.

Bogomolova surged repeatedly, well aware of Adere's reputation as a fast finisher from her days as a world class runner on the track, but it was to no avail and the Ethiopian just edged in front over the final kilometre to win in 2:20:42.

"Obviously I wanted to win, but I knew it was going to be difficult for me," said Bogomolova, whose previous career highlight was getting the silver medal at the 2002 SPAR European Cross Country Championships.  

Tomescu-Dita faded in the final 5km to finish fifth in 2:24.25, just ahead of her compatriot Nuta Olaru in 2:25:37. Russia's Lyudmila Petrova was seventh in 2:27.08.

In addition to a cheque for $65,000, Bogomolova was also rewarded with a new Russian national record.
She took more than half a minute off Petrova's former record of 2:21:29 which had been set when finishing second in the London Marathon earlier this year. Bogomolova had come home fifth in that race with what was then her personal best of 2:21:58.

Bogomolova, 29, is clearly learning to cope with the unique demands of the marathon very quickly as Chicago was only her third outing over the distance.