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 Editorials | Issues | October 2007 
Politician Runs, but Marathon Officials Now Want a Recount
 Sam Enriquez - LATimes
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| | Rather than applaud Roberto Madrazo's victory in the marathon, the Reforma newspaper is dredging up suspicions that he may have cheated. (Eduardo Verdugo/AP) |
Mexican 'wins' age group, lowers best time by 1 hour
Mexico City — Former Mexican presidential candidate Roberto Madrazo disappeared midway through the Berlin Marathon on Sunday before reappearing nine miles later, winning first in his age group and shaving an hour off his personal record.
Race organizers brag the course is fast; a world record was set Sunday.
But rather than applaud Madrazo's victory in the "men's 55-and-over" category with a time of 2 hours, 40 minutes and 57 seconds, the Reforma newspaper is dredging up suspicions that have dogged Madrazo his entire career: Could he have cheated?
Madrazo finished third in the 2006 election, largely because voters questioned how he acquired mansions and luxury cars during a lifetime of filling elected offices with the once-dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as the PRI.
It's going to be difficult for Madrazo, a veteran marathoner, to defuse the suspicions, thanks to the Germans' obsession with accuracy. Runners carried a computer microchip that recorded their times at race stations located every five kilometers along the course.
Madrazo ran his first 20 kilometers, taking him to the marathon's halfway mark, at a respectable 1:42:42. He was on track to beat his best times this year, three hours and 39 minutes at the London marathon, and 3:44 in San Diego. Not bad for a guy who turned 55 in July.
But he must have slipped into a Berlin Triangle somewhere along Potsdamer Strasse. There's no record, according to German race officials, of him passing the 25- or 30-kilometer stations, leaving 15 kilometers of the race with no record of his passing.
A Madrazo spokeswoman denied any irregularities in the race.
"It's absurd to think you can manipulate a marathon race as important as the Berlin Marathon. It's not a street race, it's a marathon of international prestige," said Addy Garcia, who also served on his presidential campaign.
Madrazo, who retired from the public spotlight after his third-place finish in 2006, will have plenty of calls to return when he arrives in Mexico today.
"The media call Madrazo the king of cheating and manipulation," Garcia said. "But if that were true, we would have won the presidential election." |
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