Kenya Dominate Marathons again as Mo Farah falls under Kamworor

Kenya continued dominating the major running events with Geoffrey Kamworor and Dedan Karoki showing the British man Mo Farah what he will be expecting in marathon races. The two Kenyans run a very tactful race dubbed, catch us if you can, and it worked very well for them.

 

Visiline Jepkesho

Farah hasn’t lost a major race over 10,000m since the 2011 IAAF World Championships in Daegu and has won seven successive world and Olympic finals since then. But, when talking about Kamworor, he generously acknowledged that he will probably be lining up in Rio alongside a phenomenal runner who was in shape to break the half marathon world record on Saturday.

Bedan Karoki

 

Kenya has not claimed the Olympic 10,000m title since Naftali Temu did in 1968, which remains Kenya’s’ only medal in that distance in almost four decades, it seems the time to reclaim that title is known as Kamworor who is at his prime age , at 23 looks well shaped and with strength to conquer Mo Farah.

The two guys are now focusing at Rio games.

 

That’s said; Kenya once again made it to the podium with a in Paris Marathon.

 

Little known within Kenya circles, Visiline Jepkesho and Cyprian Kotut won their respective races at 40^th edition, IAAF Gold. Jepkesho, 28, scooped the biggest win of her career to date, coming home in 2:25:52 to take victory ahead of Ethiopians Gulume Tollesa (2:26:14) and Dinknesh Mekasha (2:28:12).

 

Kotut cerebrating the win

Kotut, followed in the footsteps of older brother and mentor Martin Lel, a three-time champion at the London Marathon. He took home the victory in 2:07:11 ahead of Kenyan compatriots Laban Korir (2:07:29) and Stephen Chemlany (2:07:37).

 

The men’s race was a wide-open contest, with the battle for supremacy played out in the closing stages.  Kenya team of Cosmas Birech, Solomon Yego and Thomas Kiplagat took early lead with a large group of 15 runners going through 5km in 14:32, suggesting a possible finish time of about 2:03:00, somehow the rhythm slowed down  and the leading pack hit the 10km mark in 29:35. After passing the 20km checkpoint in 59:37, the three pacemakers distanced themselves from the rest of the group, with Ethiopia’s Azmeraw Mengistu a few metres behind and the chasing pack about 30 metres in arrears

 

At 30km mark, the two remaining pacemakers stepped aside, leaving nine runners up front with two Ethiopians and seven Kenyans still in contention. At this time, Laban Korir, who was sixth last year, was the first to ramp up the pace of the leading pack, but he didn’t manage to escape. Kotut crossed the finish line all alone in 2:07:11, and afterwards admitted he didn’t expect to take such a major title with his relative lack of experience at the distance.

“It’s a bit surprising I have won I think I have little experience in marathon and did not expect such great win ” said Kotut, interesting , his training partner Mike Kigen came home second. Being my second experience at the marathon, I had that fear that I wouldn’t have so much experience to deliver home a win. My objective was to run my personal best (2:08:55), so it’s perfect.” Sais Kotut

Kamworor closing the finish line

 

Korir held on to take second place in 2:07:29 as Chemlany rounded out the podium eight seconds adrift. The first French runner to finish was Timothée Bommier, who was 13th in a personal best of 2:15:38. 

With such wealthy field of runners, Kenya is looking forward to Rio games where its planning to add more medals in different fields.