ADDIS ABABA – Eliud Kipchoge ran the second fastest marathon time ever to clinch his fourth London Marathon title on Sunday.
Ethiopia’s Mosinet Geremew and Mule Wasihun finished second and third respectively behind Kipchoge, who finished 59 seconds shy of his world record of 2:01:39.
Kenya’s Kipchoge made it an incredible 11 marathon wins from 12 races, leading from start to finish coming home in a time of two hours, two minutes and 37 seconds — 58 seconds off his own world record set last year in Berlin.
The second placed Ethiopian Mosinet said that he was in Kipchoge’s hill to dethrone him from the podium. “But at the final gasp he surged ahead. I was still behind just a fraction of seconds until he made remarkable finish,” he said.
Mosinet finished over three minutes behind the winner, who is regarded by many as the greatest athlete of all time.
“It feels strange to be considered the most successful elite man in racing, it’s really good and I’m very happy to have won four times,” Kipchoge said.
“I know how to win this race and I was confident and didn’t feel it was in doubt at any point.”
Kenya’s Brigid Kosgei impressed to win the women’s race. The women’s race got off to a slow start, but reigning champion Vivian Cheruiyot ran a fast 15th mile, before
Chicago Marathon champion Kosgei took the lead and strode to her first London title with a time of 02:18:20.
She crossed the finish line almost two minutes ahead of Cheruiyot as Roza Dereje of Ethiopia finished third.
Kosgei is 25 days younger than Aselefech Mergia, the previous youngest winner, when she won the 2010 race.
The Britain Mo Farah finished a distant fifth in this race. Farah’s pre-race preparations were marked by a dispute with fellow distance-running great Haile Gebrselassie.
However, the multi-Olympic, world and European champion over 10,000 and 5,000 metres said the dispute did not act as a distraction ahead of his third London Marathon.
“I didn’t think the fuss affected my run and I wasn’t distracted by the build up,” Farah said. “It was all about London today and so I put my head down, did my best.
“I don’t regret anything I said and I respect the race.”
In the women’s race, three-times winner Mary Keitany was the favourite with the field going for the women’s only record — without the aid of male pacemakers — set by Keitany in London in 2017.
Keitany, however, never troubled Chicago Marathon champion Kosgei and last year’s winner Cheruiyot out in front, finishing down in fifth, 2:38 slower than Kosgei.
Kosgei broke clear of Cheruiyot to win having ran the fastest second half of a marathon ever.
“To smash my personal best is all I could to ask for,” Kosgei said. “I always get tempted to go with the leaders, but now I run better in the second half so I held back and that worked for me.”
Huge cash prizes were given to the winners in the elite races at the 39th edition London Marathon.
The rules dictate that the same amount of money be given to the winners of both the elite men’s and women’s races as well as the lower finishers.
Winners of the elite women’s race and elite men’s race pocketed US Dollars 55,000 each.
The prize for finishing second is US Dollars 30, 000 while the third and fourth finishers took home US Dollars 22, 000 and 15,000, respectively.
(US Dollars 125,000 for world record and US Dollars 25,000 for course record) . This is in fact a huge sum for the winners.
More than 40,000 runners, some dressed as giraffes, bells, cars and even Big Ben, took to the streets of the capital as the amount raised by the London Marathon passed £1bn.
The Ethiopian Herald April 30/2019
BY SOLOMON BEKELE
