Fantastic Finish #5

This is the last of five fantastic finishes from The Boston Globe's new book Not Till the Fat Lady Sings. Take a look at the previous four posts if you need to catch up. By the way, these finishes weren't ranked by The Globe. However, this moment made their "10 to start" list...

1998 BostonMarathon

April 20,1998

Ok, so you're coming down Boylston Street and you hear the public address announcer say you're on your way to winning the Boston Marathon. In the bag right? Not quite.

That's what happened to woman wheelchair racer Jean Driscoll. Just as she was about to raise her arms in victory, inches from the finish line, Australia's Louise Sauvage came speeding by and broke the tape. The margin of victory was less than the length of a wheelchair. All this after Driscoll flipped her wheelchair on the trolley trackes in Cleveland Circle and took 5 minutes to get back in the race. Oh yeah, and one other thing: Driscoll raced on a flat tire from Cleveland Circle to the finish line.