Monday, October 15, 2007

Roberto Madrazo – Mexico’s “Marathon Man”

By Allan Wall

“The Fastest Man of Mexico.”

That’s what Germany’s Berliner Zeitung newspaper mockingly called Roberto Madrazo, the 55-year old Mexican politician who recently “won” – and was then disqualified – a marathon race in Berlin, Germany.

Madrazo is not just any Mexican political figure.  A career politician in the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party), he has been a congressman, senator, governor of Tabasco state and chairman of the PRI.  In 2006, Madrazo was the PRI presidential candidate, finishing third in the race.

Madrazo doesn’t exactly have a clean political reputation. In his campaign for governor of Tabasco he vastly overspent legal campaign limits, and during the investigation apparently faked his own kidnapping

Madrazo is also an experienced runner who ran a 3:37 time in the San Diego Marathon.

But in the September 30th Berlin Marathon, Madrazo placed first in the 55-59 age category, with a time of 2 hours, 41 minutes and 12 seconds!

It was the 146th fastest time at Berlin, out of over 40,000 runners, and it shaved almost an hour off Madrazo’s previous time.

A little too impressive and suspicious for several reasons.

For one thing, this Marathon Man crossed the finish line still wearing a windbreaker and long pants, and not sweating very much.  Other runners had long ago shed their extra clothing and were sweating profusely.

The anomalies of Madrazo’s victory piqued the curiosity of photography Victor Sailer, and back home in Mexico the Reforma newspaper.  After some investigative work, the Berlin Marathon authorities announced on October 8th that Madrazo would be disqualified as the winner in his category.  The real winner was Martin Wahl, a German.

The marathon is a prestigious race with an ancient origin.

In the battle of Marathon in 490 B.C., the Greeks defeated the Persians (that was ten years before the battle of Thermopylae, portrayed in the recent 300 movie).  A Greek ran from Marathon to Athens to announce the victory, and then dropped dead of exhaustion.

There are two routes between the towns of Marathon and Athens – one 21.4 miles, and the other 25.3 miles.  The first modern Olympics (Athens, 1896) used the longer route.

The race’s current length of 26 miles 385 yards (42,195 meters) was established in the London Olympics of 1908, so the royal family could watch the start of the race from the Windsor Castle balcony, and view the end in the Royal Box of the Olympic Stadium.

Madrazo’s “triumph” was not the first irregularity in the history of the sport. In the 1904 (St. Louis) Olympics, American runner Frederick Lorz rode in an automobile for nearly half the race, and “won,” until the truth came out.

The Berlin Marathon utilizes a verification system with chips placed on runner’s shoes, which are scanned and recorded by electronic scanners situated alongside the route.

These scanners indicate that Madrazo didn’t pass checkpoints from the 20th to the 35th kilometers, which is quite a gap.  Suspiciously, at the 20 kilometer mark there is a shortcut that would take a runner to the last few kilometers of the race.

Supposing, just for the sake of argument, that Madrazo ran the whole length of the race; then he’d have to have covered the 15 kilometers (from kilometer 20 to kilometer 35) in 21 minutes, whereas the world record for that distance is 41 minutes!

In other words, it looks a lot like Roberto Madrazo cheated in the marathon.

Each year about 40 runners (out of some 40,000) are disqualified in the Berlin Marathon. But Madrazo is a famous politician from a country that already has a reputation for political corruption.  Unsurprisingly, the German media had some fun with this one.

Madrazo spokeswoman Addy Garcia defended her boss, responding that “At this moment he holds no public office, and he is just like any other Mexican who doesn’t have to give an explanation to anyone.” 

Later, Madrazo’s “explanation” was circulated on the Internet, addressed to the “Mexican Sports Community.”

Quoth Madrazo, “I had to stop at kilometer 21 and I went directly to the finish line for my clothes and my medal of participation, the same one given to all runners without exception.” 

If that were true, why did Madrazo cross the finish line, ham it up for the cameras and accept his victory?

Frederick Lorz also made the “picking up my clothes” excuse in 1904.

Ironically, Madrazo’s email also announced the establishment of his new foundation, called “Marathon.”

What was this guy thinking?

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Allan Wall, a MexiData.info columnist, recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq.  He currently resides in Mexico, where he has lived since 1991. He can be reached via e-mail at allan39@prodigy.net.mx.

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MexiData.info note: Roberto Madrazo has been invited to participate in the II International Half Marathon in Tijuana, Baja California, on November 4, 2007.  According to race organizers, of the Tijuana Municipal Sports Institute (IMDET), the invitation was sent prior to the Berlin Marathon.  An IMDET spokesman said that Madrazo is expected to participate in the Tijuana event, touted as “the city’s most important athletic tournament.”