Tesfaye Jifar of Ethiopia is fast ... he won the New York City marathon in 2001 with a record time for the course. (Alas, this year he became ill partway through the contest and was unable to finish.)

On Saturday 2 Nov 2002, the day before the race, Frank Litsky wrote in the New York Times:

When Jifar was asked if he would win, he said, "God knows." When asked if God had told him how the race would come out, he answered, "We talk to one another privately."

TopicRunning - TopicHumor - TopicFaith - 2002-11-05

(correlates: CelebrationOfLife, StateDepartment, LuckyMe, ...)