Athletics: Marathon finish in sight

By EUGENE BINGHAM

The road to Athens is strewn with ruins, ancient and modern. If the Acropolis, the Parthenon and the Temple of the Olympian Zeus stand as a reminder of Greece's glorious past, the dusty construction sites in the Olympic host city tell a story of delays and procrastination.

Foreign labourers have been employed to help finish venues for the Games, including the course of the historic marathon which looks like the roadworks from hell.

Stacks of metal fill, steaming bitumen, and paving stones go on for kilometre after kilometre, although it is evident most of the work to be done is finishing rather than heavy-duty road engineering.

It is a similar story at most of the other venues, including the athletes' village. The 165,000-strong workforce hired to complete the stadiums and centres are mostly involved in landscaping and finishing.

Sensitivity to international criticism means it is difficult to to take photographs at most venues, but there is no hiding the work gangs out in force along the 42.195km stretch from the village of Marathon on the outskirts of Athens to the marble Panathinaiko Stadium downtown.

It is remarkable what the Athens 2004 organising committee and the Greek Government have managed to achieve in just four years, but it is even more remarkable that for the three years prior to that no work was done at all.

That things were left so late is shrugged off in this Mediterranean capital as the Greek way. "In Greece, we sometimes start late but we always finish on time," says Athens Mayor Dora Bakoyannis.

The head of international relations for Athens 2004, Dionyssis Gangas, is circumspect. "I don't pretend that we weren't late in starting, but this is an answer the Government should give."

He points out that the International Olympic Committee's inspection teams last month expressed confidence that the venues would be completed. And as if to emphasis his point, the second half of the Olympic Stadium's grand roof has slid into place, slamming shut on the doom-merchants who predicted the ambitious project would have to be abandoned.

Still, the completion of the venues will be a tight run thing.

There is no better example than the marathon route, which is not due to be finished until July 15, less than a month out from the August 13 opening ceremony.

Incredibly, there was no work done on the course at all for about four months after one of the main contractors went bust late last year.

The route is along a main road, but don't expect to drive along it in a hurry. A journey by car last week took more than an hour and a half - only about 30 minutes quicker than the men will run the race on August 29.

The road has been widened, trees being planted and new pavements laid.

"Believe me," Gangas says, "it's going to be a piece of art."

The Greek insistence on pouring so much effort into the marathon route is, of course, because the event itself is steeped in so much history for them.

When the athletes reach the marble stadium which hosted the first modern Olympics in 1896, they will have retraced the steps of the Athenian soldier Pheidippides, who in one version of events had run to the city in 490 BC to bring news of victory over the Persians in the Battle of Marathon.

Legend has it that after croaking "We won!" he croaked it himself.

The next most famous completion of the course was when Greek hero Spyros Louis ran to victory in the inaugural Olympic marathon.

The official record shows that he ran to the front after stopping for a glass of wine at a taverna about 15km from the finish.

This time the runners will start in Marathon, a village of narrow streets servicing the surrounding horticultural hinterland.

About 4km into the race, they will divert left to circle around the burial mound where the 192 Athenian soldiers who died in the battle are entombed.

Back on the main road, it gradually widens into a four and then an eight-lane freeway. Olive trees and conifers serve as some distraction from the shops and businesses that line the route to central Athens.

Setting aside the history, the most striking thing about the course is its climbs.

After an initial descent, a small climb and then another downhill run, the course ascends up and up and up.

Between the 20km and 35km marks, the runners will climb from 40m above sea level to 205m. Most of the hard work is between 25km and around 32km.

Athletics New Zealand high performance manager Tony Rogers has been to Athens and filmed the course for the two Kiwi athletes who will line up, Dale Warrander and Jonathan Wyatt.

"It's going to be a tough course, no doubt about that," said Rogers. "And at that time of the day, the wind's going to be at their backs, meaning it won't have as much of the cooling effect that they'd want."

HEAT is an important consideration because the men's race is not due to start until 6pm to coincide with the closing ceremony.

Rogers says the average temperature at that time of day is about 28C, although it can reach 34C or higher.

He expects the tradition and history surrounding the event will wear off once the start gun fires.

"Once you have left the start, it's just another race on another big city road until you enter the Panathinaiko Stadium."

The course has been used to stage the Athens Classic Marathon for decades.

In 1971, the late, great Rotorua marathoner Jack Foster competed and found it to be much tougher than he ever thought. He wrote about it in his book, Tale of the Ancient Marathoner, saying it should be the only place where a world best time should count.

"Most of the marathon runners who are capable of setting a record or world best get the opportunity to run there at some time," said Foster. "It is a true test of a real road man."