The helicopters hovered in the air, signaling that the frontrunner of this year's Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race would soon emerge from just beyond the hill.

Terefe Maregu, 25, of Ethiopia, crossed Ponce de Leon Avenue, at the course's new finish line, ran off to the side and heaved.

BEN GRAY / bgray@ajc.com (ENLARGE)

Top-seeded Terefe Maregu of Ethiopia (front) pulls away from other contenders down the final stretch on Juniper Street.

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He motioned for water, sweat dripping from every pore. As he was about to take a sip from the bottle he was given, a Peachtree worker quickly smacked it out of his hand. The water was not "secured" and Maregu had to wait an extra few minutes for the good stuff to get there.

He may have had an unsettling celebration, but Maregu sported nothing but a smile.

He won the men's division in his first appearance at Peachtree with a time of 28:30, four seconds ahead of of Kenyan Peter Kamais.

"The course is very simple. Only straight. Not uphill, not zig zag," he said. "I am very happy."

Nearly four minutes later, Nataliya Berkut, 33, of Ukraine, stumbled across the line to win the women's division. She caught up to some of the men's finishers and crossed with a time of 32:23. She finished ahead of 12th-seeded Ethiopian Ashu Kasim, 23, who strolled in 13 seconds behind her.

Kurt Fearnley, 28, of Australia, started off the festivities by repeating for another first-place finish in the wheelchair division with a time of 19:54.

In addition to his back-to-back Peachtree titles, in 2007 he won the wheelchair divisions of 10 marathons, including New York and Chicago.

"Everything I wanted to have happen in my career happened in eight months," he said. "It's just been incredible."

The new finish line features an incline instead of the decline heading into Piedmont Park. Much to Fearnley's surprise, the difference didn't add much time to his 19:25 finish from last year.

"We sat around last night, and the quickest anyone predicted was 20:30," he said.

Edith Hunkeler, 35, of Switzerland, won her second Peachtree, with a time of 25:29. Her first victory was in 2004.

Hunkler said the spectators definitely set Peachtree apart from other races.

"They cheer you on, and that's exciting and something special," she said.