London win for Kenyans
Print Edition
KENYA’S Daniel Wanjiru held off a late charge from Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele to win the London Marathon yesterday in 2 hours, 5 minutes & 48 seconds.
His triumph completed the double for Kenya after Mary Keitany sealed her third London title in a women’s only world record of 2:17.01, beating Britain’s Paula Radcliffe’s previous best by 41 seconds. Radcliffe still holds the overall record of 2:15.25, which she set in a mixed gender race at the London Marathon in 2003 when she used male runners to help set the pace.
The IAAF recognizes two marathon world records for women, one for “mixed gender” and the other for “women only”.
Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba was 0.56 down in second, while compatriot Aselefech Mergia was 6.07 back in third.
Bekele, 34, a three-time Olympic champion on the track, had been hoping to break Dennis Kimetto’s men’s world record of 2:02.57 and asked pacemakers to deliver him to the halfway mark in 61.30.
They arrived 10 seconds slower — still on world-record pace — but Bekele then fell away as his leg muscles tightened up under the strain, leaving Wanjiru, fellow Kenyans Bedan Karoki and Abel Kirui and Ethiopia’s Feyisa Lilesa to form a four-man lead group.
However, Bekele staged a recovery and was only a handful of seconds adrift of the head of the race when Wanjiru split the lead quartet with an acceleration. Bekele overtook Lilesa, Kirui and Karoki but could not catch Wanjiru, who won by nine seconds in his first appearance at the London Marathon.
Karoki finished 1:53 back in third on his marathon debut.
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