PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- Rod DeHaven reeled in race leader Peter De La Cerda during the 22nd mile this morning and pulled away to win the 2000 U.S. Men's Olympic Trials portion of the 16th City of Pittsburgh Marathon in 2 hours, 15 minutes and 30 seconds.

  Since DeHaven's winning time in the blistering heat and humidity did not meet the Olympic "A" qualifying standard of 2:14:00, he will be Team USA's lone representative in the 2000 Summer Olympic Games Marathon at Sydney, Australia.

  "I'm ecstatic, but in a sad way because I'm the only one," said DeHaven, 33, of Madison, Wisconsin. "I had a lot left. I was just hanging on out there. I was expecting it to be a lot worse. The only thing that bothered me were some cramps near the end."

  It was sunny and 66 degrees with 87 percent humidity in downtown Pittsburgh when the race started at 7:55 a.m. By race's end, it was 88 degrees with 80 percent humidity at Point State Park, where the anticlimactic, 26.2-mile chase ended.

  De La Cerda, 28, of Alamosa, Colorado, faded to a distant second in 2:16:18, followed by Mark Coogan, 34, of Frederick, Maryland in 2:17:04.

  "I felt good until 20-21 miles, and my legs just got heavy," De La Cerda said. "A blister on my right foot started bleeding and it was bleeding through my shoe. I thought it would be a gutsy move to go out after it, but he just had too much strength in the end.

  "It's not a wasted effort. I got a PR. I just didn't have anyone to help me."

  Top-seeed David Morris, 29, of Albuquerque, New Mexico also needed help. He briefly stopped running 1:15:41 into the race, clutching his side, then resumed running again with hopes the eventual race winner would break 2:14.

  Morris, who limped home 38th in 2:29:26, was one of only two U.S. runners to have met the Olympic "A" qualifying standard of 2:14:00. He needed help from his running friends to get him to Sydney, Australia, for the 2000 Summer Olympic Games.

  "For the last four years, I've pointed to this race," Morris said. "Now it's over. Life goes on -- there's always a next time. Just between Khannouchi and 2:14, it just stressed me out. I couldn't sleep at all this week. I got abdominal cramps at about two miles and my breathing wasn't good. I wasn't smooth. And at 16 miles, I started to feel my legs get real sore."

  Ditto for Joe Lemay, 33, of Danbury, Connecticut, the other entrant who had met the Olympic "A" qualifying standard. He struggled to 61st place in 2:36:42, ending his Olympic dream.

  Scott Larson, 30, finished fourth in 2:17:16, followed by Eddy Hellebuyck, David Scudamore, Gary Stolz, Jeff Campbell, Danny Martinez and Teddy Mitchell representing the U.S. Army's World Class Athlete Program at Colorado Springs.

  Seventh-seeded Todd Williams, 31, of Knoxville, Tennessee also succumbed to the unseasonable heat wave and finished 41st in 2:30:18.

  "The heat smashed me at mile 16," Williams said. "It was a death march for the last 11 miles. After all the training I did, it's a tough pill to swallow. It just didn't work out, but I was going to finish no matter what."

  Race leaders De La Cerda, Hellebuyck, Morris and Mitchell reached the half-marathon mark in 1 hour, 7 minutes and 41 seconds. De La Cerda was on pace to run 2:15:19 after crossing the 15-mile mark in 1:17:25.

  Todd Reeser, 26, of Canandaigua, New York held a 10-second lead over the lead pack through the first 10 miles in 51 minutes, 5 seconds and was on pace to finish the 26.2-mile chase in 2 hours, 13 minutes and 50 seconds, just 10 seconds under the Olympic "A" qualifying standard. But as he climbed the most wicked hill on the course during the 12th mile, Reeser dropped out of the race.

  Scott Bagley, of Rochester, New York led the 106 starters through the seven-mile mark in 35 minutes, 39 seconds.