Kastor wins marathon at U.S. Olympic trials

BOSTON (Reuters) - Deena Kastor won the marathon at the U.S. Olympic women's trials on Sunday to take one of the country's three places in the event at the Beijing Olympics.

Kastor took the lead in the last few miles to finish in a provisional time of 2 hours, 29 minutes and 35 seconds.

Magdalena Lewy-Boulet finished second in 2:30:19 with Blake Russell qualifying as the third U.S. team member in 2:32:40.

The 35-year-old Kastor, who won bronze at the 2004 Athens Games, was favourite to triumph on a course that wound its way through Boston and nearby Cambridge along the Charles River.

Lewy-Boulet, 34, a Polish immigrant from northern California, qualified for this year's Games having missed out on Athens after only finishing fifth in the U.S. qualifying round.

She surprised Kastor and the thousands of onlookers lined up along the river and Boston's streets by moving in front of the pack and staying there for most of the race.

At one point Lewy-Boulet was more than two minutes ahead of Kastor, who said: "I thought for many miles that I may have misjudged ... Magdalena's strength".

("Countdown to Beijing Olympics" blog at blogs.reuters.com/china)