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Kenyan runner collapses, crawls to marathon finish line

Published  February 17, 2015 1:43pm PST
Associated Press





AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A marathon runner is being hailed for her grit and determination after she collapsed while running a Texas marathon and crawled the final 300 yards to finish in third place.

Twenty-nine-year-old Hyvon Ngetich (en-geh-TICH) of Kenya had broken from the women's pack during Sunday's Austin Marathon and was leading late in the race. Race director John Conley says Ngetich began to stagger with about 600 yards to go and later fell.

A medical team monitored her as she crawled toward the finish with thousands of spectators cheering her on. At one point she was offered a wheelchair but declined.

She finished in third place in the women's division with a time of 3:04:03.

Conley says Ngetich acknowledged she didn't eat enough prior to the race.