Ceron so sure of a cracking pace

LONDON MARATHON: The defending champion talks a good fight. Mike Rowbottom reports

If Dionicio Ceron, Mexico's defending champion in tomorrow's Nutrasweet London Marathon, lives up to his own advance billing, the rest of the field might as well not turn up.

The man from the mountains of Toluca has said that if the weather is kindly, a time of 2hr 6min is possible for him. That is nearly three minutes faster than he ran in winning last year, and well inside Belayneh Densimo's seven-year-old world best of 2:06.50. Steve Moneghetti, Australia's Commonwealth champion and the 1994 world No 1, has talked in terms of running 2:07.30.

The reaction to these predictions from others in the race has been instructive. Antonio Pinto of Portugal, who won this race in 1992, had to ask twice when these projected times were announced to him. "I shall follow them with a sack," he said with a wicked grin, "and put them in as I go past.'' Eamonn Martin, Britain's 1993 champion who finished eighth behind Ceron last year, smiled wryly when he was told. "I think it's probably only talk, really," he said.

In an effort to turn words into deeds, the organisers have assigned Britain's Gary Staines and Jan Huruk of Poland to take the field through the half- way point in a time of around 63min 30sec. If they do that, neither Martin nor his fellow Briton, Paul Evans, will shrink from going with the pace.

Ceron and Moneghetti clearly have the talent and experience to dominate the race if things fall right for them, but it will be fascinating to see how closely the British contingent can challenge them. Evans v Martin is a finely balanced race within a race.

Since setting a European half-marathon record at Marrakesh in January - his time of 60:09 bettered Steve Jones's old British mark by 50sec - Evans has concentrated his energies upon today's event, deciding against doing the Lisbon half-marathon last month.

He is not lacking in motivation. Having finished fifth in the 1992 London Marathon and gone on to reach the Olympic 10,000 metres final, Evans approached the 1993 event with justified confidence. Two days beforehand he developed a virus which caused him to drop out after 14 miles; Martin charged on to win the race on his marathon debut and became front-page as well as back-page news as he celebrated with his wife and newly-born son.

There were further trials for the down-to-earth Lowestoft runner. The heat forced him to drop out of the world championship marathon in Stuttgart, and last year he pulled out of the London again with a back injury.

Just to round off his year, he was not offered the vacant third 10,000m place for the European Championships even though he had a valid qualifying time from 1993.

"They had a plane ticket, they had a place, but they just didn't want to choose me," Evans said. His coach and agent, John Bicourt, took up the story. "The selectors said he hadn't proved his fitness. I pointed out to the national coach, Malcolm Arnold, that he was coming back after injury and had run a 13:47 5,000m at Crystal Palace. He said: `Yeah, but he looked just like a carthorse'.''

The slight has rankled with Evans. "It was just like a red rag to a bull for me," he said. "Whenever I do something good now, I say to myself: `That's not bad for a carthorse'.''

If he can translate the promise of Marrakesh fully tomorrow, Evans may yet have more cause for pride. He has been reported as being fed up with living in Martin's shadow, which is not quite the impression he intended to make. "I don't have any gripe with Eamonn. It's just that he's had it, and I'd like some of it.''

Martin, however, appears ready to claim a bit more of it after a steady preparation which has only been marred by a couple of bouts of flu.

Willie Mtola, the South African who won the 1992 New York Marathon, is also likely to figure prominently, and Britain's Mark Hudspith, coached by the 1966 Commonwealth champion Jim Alder, will be seeking to build on the achievement of earning a Commonwealth bronze medal in Victoria last summer.

Pre-race predictions used to be one of Liz McColgan's favoured means of psychological warfare. On this occasion, however, as she enters her first big event after almost two years out with injury, she is keeping her own counsel.

The bookies are in no doubt that Katrin Drre of Germany is going to win an unprecedented fourth title in a row - she is 5-2 on favourite - but, with Australia's double Commonwealth champion Lisa Ondieki dropping out with injury, McColgan has drifted in from 14-1 to 7-1.

What McColgan must avoid is the temptation to go out too quickly, something she paid for here two years ago. If Drre miscalculates her own race, Portugal's European champion, Manuela Machado, looks the most likely beneficiary, although Kim Jones of the United States and Ritva Lemettinen of Finland could also profit.