Wilson Kiprotich Kebenei (centre) winner of the Prague 10km race (© Prague)
Wilson Kiprotich Kebenei of Kenya set a new event record at the BAWAG Bank Grand Prix in Prague on Sunday (10), beating Haile Gebrselassie’s 2004 mark of 28:07 by 2 seconds on a cloudless, windless, mild afternoon.
Geoffrey Kipngeno of Kenya placed second, forty seconds off the pace with a time of 28:45. Sergiy Lebid of Ukraine took third, with a time of 29:02. And beating fourth place finisher, Stanley Salil by 25 seconds.
The first Czech runner to cross was Robert Stefko, who placed seventh, recording a time of 29:58.
In the adidas Women’s 5km race earlier in the day, Hungarian Aniko Kalovics successfully defended her title, winning the Grand Prix event for the fifth time, and for a second year in a row, with a time of 15:40, a time that matched her winning mark from 2005.
Ida Nilsson of Sweden took second with a time of 15:46 while Alice Chelangat of Kenya took third with a time of 15: 52.
The first Czech woman to finish was Petra Kaminkova, who clocked a time of 16:18 and preceded her country woman Jana Klimesova by 44 seconds.
The 2006 BAWAG Bank Grand Prix also featured a new event - The Embassy Team Championship - a 10km run with 3-person teams representing several foreign embassies in Prague. In its inaugural run, a team of Marines from the U.S. Embassy took first, followed by the second place Danish Embassy. A team from the Czech Foreign Ministry came in third, with a total team time just 4 seconds behind the Danes.
Rich Herstek for the IAAF