DeHaven Takes Seventh in Marathon

SYDNEY—Rod DeHaven, America’s lone entry in the men’s Olympic Marathon, placed seventh in today’s race, the highest finish by an American man since Frank Shorter won the silver medal at the Montreal Games in 1976.

DeHaven said that he was pleased with his race but asked fans to keep it in perspective.

“Tt turned out that the rest of the countries also sent only one runner,” DeHaven said. “I think it’s safe to say Iwouldn’thave placed as high if there had been three Kenyans, three Spaniards, three Japanese, and so on in the race.”

DeHaven was the only American in the race because of a convoluted team-selection process that stipulated that if the winner of May’s Trials hadn’t met the Olympic “A” standard of 2:14, then only the winner would go, even if that meant leaving home runners who had met the “A” standard.

What wasn’t expected was that other countries would follow suit.

“Wait a minute—you’re saying we could have had three guys here?!?” Mike Kipkemboit, an official with the Kenyan federation, said after the race. “We figured the rules had been changed or something. Why else would the U.S. not send as many runners as possible? Isn’t that what they do in all the other events?”