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Close Finish - The 1984 Houston Marathon
Denny Morse is a long-time volunteer at the Houston Marathon and a member of the Board of Directors. Denny was a judge at the finish line for the 1984 Houston Marathon, and participated in the official decision on the closest finish in Houston Marathon history. The following is his account of that finish.
 I think you could say that the 1984 race had the closest finish of any marathon ever – although that would be difficult to prove.
That year, the race finished at the old Albert Thomas Convention Hall on Smith Street in downtown Houston. The lead runners made the final turn onto Smith Street two hundred yards from the finish line, four abreast! At that instant, we knew we were in for a remarkably close finish.
Twenty yards from the tape, one end of which I was holding, Charlie Spedding of England and Massimo Magnani of Italy were racing side by side. When they were ten yards from the finish line, it occurred to me that I had better assume the role of finish line judge, as if it were a 100-meter race instead of a marathon.
Assuming the position of finish line judge as Magnani and Spedding approached, I turned and looked straight across the street when the two were about ten yards from the line. Therefore I did not witness the last ten yards of the race.
I was later informed that Magnani and Spedding accidentally bumped just before the finish line. This could explain why photos show Spedding about four yards in front of Magniani just after crossing the line. The bump may have been just enough to push Spedding ahead for the win.
The Houston Marathon did not have state-of-the-art photo equipment at the finish line. Fortunately we did have several experienced judges, all of whom saw the same result – that Spedding had beaten Magnani by 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch. This equates to a time difference of 0.003 seconds after a two-hour race.
In most marathons, a second place finisher coming in within ten seconds of the winner is considered an extremely close finish. In the 1984 Houston Marathon, not only were the first and second place runners separated by less than an inch, but the top four runners all crossed the line in the space of three seconds.
Magnani believed that he had won the race, but all of the race officials disagreed and his formal protest was rejected by the Houston Marathon Appeals Committee. Spedding ran for the English team and won a bronze medal at the Los Angeles summer Olympics later that year.
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