Phil Hersh's top ten women's marathoners of all time...

As a kickoff to paulmerca.blogspot.com's coverage of the Bank of America Chicago Marathon on Sunday, Phil Hersh of the Chicago Tribune, who is one of the best Olympic beat writers, compiled on the Los Angeles Times' web site a list of the top ten women's marathoners of all time.

Hersh's caveat: "Because there were no championship marathons for women until the early 1980s, it was impossible to rank any of the standout pioneer female marathoners, like Jacqueline Hansen of the U.S. and Chantal Langlace of France, each of whom set two world records in the 1970s".

His list:

1. Catherine Ndereba (left/photo by Paul Merca)
2. Grete Waitz
3. Paula Radcliffe
4. Joan Benoit Samuelson
5. Rosa Mota
6. Lidia Simon
7. Katrin Dorre
8. Ingrid Kristiansen
9. Valentina Yegorova
10. Naoko Takahashi

You can read his article here, along with his rationales on why they're ranked where they are...

I'd be interested in hearing what you folks think and also why you think so-and-so should be ranked higher or lower. If you choose to accept this mission, please send in your top female marathoners in via the comments section.

Fire away!