Bittersweet victory

Robert Cheruiyot ran a perfect race in inclement weather to win the 2006 Chicago Marathon earlier today in a time of 2:07:35, but was denied his chance to fully celebrate it when he slipped at the finish line, slamming his head on the road and suffering a severe head injury in the process - reports point to a brain haemorrhage, but he is supposedly in a stable condition. Luckily for him, his momentum carried him across the finish line - imagine the agony of a DNF if he'd slipped a couple of feet before the line.

Cheruiyot, also winner of the Boston Marathon earlier this year, slipped on the textureless sponsor logo just before the finishing mat, which had been made more slick by the rain. Click on the image to see the video of his fall. CNN has another good angle where you can even see the officials removing the offending sponsor logo before more runners could succumb to the same fate. The incident generated quite a buzz on the Letsrun message boards, which you can read about here, here and here.