A Chinese woman runner and an Ugandan man put their Kenyan
counterparts on notice that their dominance in the long distance
races will be coming under check in future as the Nairobi Marathon
ended in Nairobi on Sunday.
However, despite the stiff competition displayed in the Standard
Chartered sponsored marathon, the first leg of the Greatest race on
Earth (GROE), debutant Kiprop Rotich, a forest guard in Aberdare
Forest in central Kenya, won the fourth edition in the fastest time
ever recorded in Kenya of 2 hours 10 minutes 17 seconds on a flat
course in the outskirts of the Kenyan capital.
The GROE race, which is becoming the unofficial "World Cup of
Marathons", features over 80 teams and 300 selected elite
participants competing for the top prize. The race covers marathons
in Nairobi, Singapore, Bombay and Hong Kong, the organizers
said.
Irene Jerotich, a 26-years-old from a running camp deep in the
Marakwet hills of northern Kenya which produces some of celebrated
Kenyan distance runners, took the women's title in 2:32:42.
At least Chinese Zhang Xin, second in the women's race and
Ugandan ace Alex Malinga, third in men's divisions, put Kenyans on
notice that in future they will always face worthy opponents.
The 18-year-old Zhang is from China's northeastern province of
Liaoning. She has been training for marathon for over two years.
Her performance surprised many elite runners and the organizers
because she took part in the race with a foot injury.
Zhang is the only non-Kenyan in the top 10 women winners in this
year's Nairobi full marathon.
Ugandan ace Alex Malinga, a previous winner of Mombasa marathon,
denied Kenyans a complete podium finishes by finishing third in
2:13:06. Malinga is the only non-Kenyan in the men's top 10
winners.
In the 21-km half marathon, Philemon Baaru, a Nyeri town
shopkeeper, raced to beat a host of contestants. "This is my
biggest win. I am now planning to run in the 2007 World Cross
Country Championship," Baaru who clocked 1:06:03 said.
Moses Kororia, who made his second appearance in the third
edition of the race, said the race was his stepping-stone to a
career in Europe. He finished second.
The Nairobi Marathon, sponsored by the Standard Chartered Bank,
was created in 2004 with the inaugural event slated as a charity
event in which participants raised funds for onward donations to
hospitals.
Bank executives said about 15,000 runners took part in the race
this year in Nairobi.
The second of the race in Singapore is dubbed the "Island Race",
which is scheduled on December 3. And the Bombay bit of the race is
called "the Historic Race through Bombay" and is slated for January
21, 2007.
"This race was the hardest. It was difficult to keep pace of the
more experienced Kenyan runners," said Gede Gugti, an Indonesian
runner who topped the list of the runners from the Asian
region.
(Xinhua News Agency October 30, 2006)