Joseph Chebet
Home: Elmarakwet
Age: 30
Personal best: 2:07:37 (Boston, 1998)

Chebet made his mark in 1999 by becoming only the third man to win Boston and New York in the same year, joining Bill Rodgers (1978, 1979) and Alberto Salazar (1982). He came up short last year in his bid to repeat and finished eighth. In his marathon career, he has four wins and three second-place finishes. Before his Boston wins, he won his first two marathons: Amsterdam (1996, 2:10:57) and Turin (1997, 2:08:23). He also was second in New York in 1997 and '98 to John Kagwe.

He ran his personal-best of 2:07:37 in Boston in 1998, but was three seconds behind Moses Tanui's winning time. That second-place time remains the fourth-fastest time ever on the Hopkinton-to-Boston route. Chebet calls his Boston win the high point of his career.

Track & Field News ranked him No. 1 in the world for 1999, ahead of Khalid Khannouchi, who set the world record at Chicago, and Abel Anton, who won the World Championships Marathon in Seville, Spain.