http://www.iaaf.org/news/report/karoki-gifu-seiryu-half-marathon
18 MAY 2014 REPORT GIFU, JAPAN
KAROKI BEATS TADESE AND SETS GIFU SEIRYU HALF MARATHON COURSE RECORD
Kenya's Bedan Karoki upset the Eritrean favourite and defending champion
Zersenay Tadese in the fourth annual Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon, an IAAF
Bronze Label Road Race, to win in a new course record of 1:00:02 on Sunday
(18).
Karoki, fifth in the London 2012 Olympic Games 10,000m, eclipsed the
previous course record of 1:00:31 set by Tadese last year but was a
frustrating four seconds short of his own personal best of 59:58 from
Lisbon Half Marathon in March, where he made his debut over the distance.
With the thermometer reading almost 20 degrees Celsius at the start and 40%
humidity, six men broke away early in the race and covered the first 5km in
14:17.
During the next 5km, three runners - the Kenyan trio of Patrick Mwaka,
Edward Waweru and Cyrus Njui - lost contact with the leaders, leaving
Karoki, Tadese and Ethiopia's Abayneh Ayele together at the front.
Karoki, Tadese and Ayele passed 10km together in 28:25, then Karoki started
to pull ahead of his two rivals Tadese and Ayele as they approached the
15km mark.
At 15km, which Karoki passed in 42:56, the Kenyan was four seconds ahead of
Tadese, who in turn was eight seconds ahead of Ayele.
Karoki then moved up a gear and covered the next 5km segment between 15km
and 20km in a blazing 14:03, while both Tadese and Ayele took over 15
minutes for the same distance.
By 20km, Karoki was 1:14 seconds ahead of second place Tadese, and the gap
just continued to grow.
Karoki covered the final 1.0975km in 3:03 to he is now two-for-two so far
in his short half marathon career.
For Tadese, his second place time of 1:01:34 was his slowest half marathon
time since 2003, while Ayele came home nine seconds later for third place.
Mwaka, Waweru and Njui finished fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.
Mwaka recorded a personal best of 1:01:56, while improving from sixth place
last year to fourth on Sunday. Waweru, half marathon debutante, ran 1:02:08
in his debut and Njui clocked 1:02:50.
The other sub-60 minute performer in the race, Mekubo Mogusu of Kenya, was
eighth in a disappointing 1:03:08.
The women's race produced an even bigger surprise as the 2014 Milano
Marathon champion Visiline Jepkesho, upset her Kenyan compatriot and
two-time IAAF World Championships marathon winner Edna Kiplagat, who was
overwhelming favourite before the start of the race.
The two Kenyans quickly separated themselves from the rest of the women
and, together, they passed 5km in 16:30, 10km in 33:27, 15km in 50:34 and
20km in 1:07:26.
In the final kilometre, Jepkesho proved to be the faster finisher and
pulled away to win in 1:10:53, improving her personal best by almost a
minute.
Kiplagat came home second in 1:11.18, perhaps still feeling her exertions
from last month's London Marathon in her legs, which she won in 2:20:21.
Yuko Mizuguchi finished third and was the first Japanese runner home but
was more than three minutes behind Kiplagat in 1:14:31. The total number of
finishers was 9452.
Ken Nakamura for the IAAF
Received on Sun May 18 2014 - 19:48:43 EDT