Cypress Duo Stripped of Race Titles

John and Suzanne Murphy, a married couple from Cypress who were apparent age-group winners in the Boston Marathon, have been disqualified from the race for not completing the course, Boston Athletic Assn. spokesman Jack Fleming said Thursday.

Suzanne Murphy disputed the ruling, saying she and her husband ran the entire race.

The Murphys were informed of the decision Thursday morning and told that race officials lacked photographic proof that they ran past every required checkpoint.

“The failure to appear on the surveillance video tapes was cause for them to be disqualified,” Fleming said.

About a half-dozen runners are disqualified each year from the event, Fleming said. The Murphys are the only ones to be disqualified from the 1997 race thus far.

The Boston Marathon’s most famous disqualification was in 1980, when Rosie Ruiz apparently won the women’s overall division. It was later discovered that she sneaked into the race about a mile from the finish.

Suzanne Murphy said Thursday she and her husband wore computer chips on their shoes, and that she wore a shirt through the early part of the race that might have obscured her number.

The race uses a combination of computer chip registration points at the beginning, midpoint and end of the course, and surveillance cameras mounted at secret points throughout the race.

“We were wearing chips just like they do in L.A., so I didn’t think seeing the number was all that important,” said Murphy, who added that she has run the Boston Marathon seven times.

Boston officials said the Murphys registered at three checkpoints throughout the race, but they declined to speculate publicly how the runners could have checked in on the computer, but not on the cameras.

John Murphy, 61, won in the men’s senior division (ages 60 and over), and his time of 2 hours 43 minutes 9 seconds was the second-fastest ever by a U.S. senior runner. It was also more than seven minutes faster than his time in the Los Angeles Marathon on March 2. Murphy finished 106th overall in the L.A. Marathon with a time of 2:50.45, which was nearly 11 seconds faster than his 1995 time.

Suzanne Murphy, 59, won the women’s veterans division (ages 50-59) in the Boston race. Her time of 3:12:18 was the eighth-fastest ever among women in her age group. She ran 3:14.46 in the L.A. Marathon and won the 50-59 age group. She finished 31st overall.

“We decided it was appropriate for us to announce these two individuals because they were at the top of their respective age groups,” Fleming said.

The second-place finishers--Anthony Cerminaro, 60, of Jermyn, Pa., (2:54.17) and Susan Gustafson, 50, of Norwell, Mass., (3:19:47)--were declared the winners in those divisions.

Suzanne Murphy seemed resigned to the issue.

“It’s their rules, so if we’re disqualified, I guess we’re disqualified,” she said.