Rodgers faced tougher race

He's getting back in form after cancer

Bill Rodgers had hoped to run Monday's Boston Marathon to celebrate turning 60. Until the phone call came at the beginning of December when he was in Barbados, informing him he had prostate cancer. "I was having a good time with friends, drinking rum and Cokes," he says. "It was a bolt out of the blue. I was shocked. There was no indication."

Rodgers had the gland removed in mid-January and was back on the roads in February. So far, his prognosis is encouraging and he's penciled in for his usual spring and summer schedule, including a half-marathon in Oklahoma City next week. "I'm almost back to where I was," reports the four-time Boston champ. "Which isn't very high."

Notable dropouts

Kenya's Robert Cheruiyot, who's bidding for his fourth Boston title, will be a couple of challengers shy. Patrick Ivuti, who dethroned him in Chicago, withdrew after contracting malaria. And Stephen Kiogora, who was third here last year, pulled out because the post-election violence in Kenya disrupted his training . . . With his London victory last weekend, Kenya's Martin Lel took over first place atop the World Marathon Majors leaderboard with 65 points, 25 ahead of Morocco's Abderrahim Goumri and 35 ahead of Cheruiyot, last year's inaugural winner. On the women's side, defending champion Gete Wami of Ethiopia remained in first with 65 points by finishing third behind Germany's Irina Mikitenko, who is tied for second with China's Zhou Chunxiu with 40. The current biennial cycle has five more races - Boston, the Olympics in August, Berlin in September, Chicago in October, and New York in November. The men's and women's champions receive $500,000 apiece . . . Joan Samuelson, named to the US Olympic Hall of Fame this week, will be doing double duty here this weekend. After running in her fourth Olympic Trials tomorrow morning, the 1984 gold medalist will fire the starting gun for the women's elite race Monday. Walter Brown, whose family has brandished the pistol since 1905, will start the first wave of the men's race, with Senator John Kerry commencing the wheelchair race.

Laurel laureates

Seven defending or former Boston champions will be competing Monday. Besides Cheruiyot (2003-06-07) and countryman Timothy Cherigat (2004), there are Keizo Yamada (1953), Amby Burfoot (1968), and Greg Meyer (1983), plus Lidiya Grigoryeva and Rita Jeptoo, the last two women's victors. Margaret Okayo, who set the course record in 2002, withdrew with a leg injury. Four wheelchair titlists also will be in action - defending champions Masazumi Soejima and Wakako Tsuchida, Ernst Van Dyk (2001-06), and Cheri Blauwet (2004-05). It'll be the 14th consecutive appearance by the 80-year-old Yamada, who has won his age group seven times and was second last year . . . Neil Weygandt, 61, the April hardy perennial from Drexel Hill, Pa. who leads the "streaker" list with 41 consecutive Boston finishes, still has relentless Harvard old boy Bennett Beach from Bethesda, Md., on his tail with 40. "Neil is an iron man," salutes Beach, who's three years younger and has the actuarial tables on his side. Weygandt has been bothered by a cranky knee, while Beach is battling dystonia, a neuromuscular movement disorder that hampers his stride. "What I'm worried about are the last 26 miles," he cracks.