Despite bad weather Edith Masai took the Neuss 5k road race in style on Saturday evening (20 May). While the Mannheim Marathon scheduled for Sunday had to be cancelled due to storm warnings the Kenyan clocked 15:40 minutes in rainy and windy conditions. The three-time World Cross Country short race winner, who had won the Berlin Half Marathon in April in a world class 67:16 minutes but had then finished a disappointing seventh in the Hamburg Marathon in 2:30:01, had a big winning margin.
Second place was taken by Irina Mikitenko (Germany) with 15:55 minutes while Petra Kaminkova (Czech Republic) finished in 16:13 for third. Kenya’s Viola Bor came in fourth another three seconds behind.
The men’s race was much closer but not that fast. Abraham Tandoi (Kenya) won the 10k race in 29:20. He was just one second ahead of Ernest Kemeli (Kenya). Khalid Yaseen (Bahrain) finished third in 29:23.
Jörg Wenig for the IAAF
