Two women go sub-2:30; Zemin takes surprise win in Pyongyang

The 22nd Mangyongdae Prize International Marathon which is an IAAF Road Race Label Event was held in Pyongyang (PRK) on Sunday (12 April),as usual as a part of the Mangyongdae Sports Festival.

In the women’s race the first 13 places belonged to the host country, and the race once again saw some good times.

27-year-old Pyo Un Suk defended her 2008 title to win in 2:28:34, a personal best cutting five seconds off her winning time last year.

Kim Kum Ok, who was 12th at the 2008 Olympic marathon in Beijing, finished second in 2:29:38. Kim, the 2007 World Student Games Half Marathon champion has a personal best of 2:26:56, a time she set when coming second in Pyongyang in 2007 behind Jong Yong Ok’s fast 2:26:02 PB. Jong Yong Ok was a distant third this year in 2:32:51.

Sunday’s men’s race saw a close finish with the first five runners inside 30 seconds. 26-year-old Chinese Wang Zemin beat Namibian Reinhold Ita winning by two seconds in a personal best 2:14:21. The Chinese previous career earlier best was 2:15:03 from the 2008 Beijing International Marathon but Wang was by no means the pre-race favourite as his season’s best of 2:19:09 (3 January) coming into the race wasn’t the best of the field.

Namibian Ita apparently was running his first marathon. The 34-year-old has run a best of 63:02 half marathon in 2002 and ran his 5000m track best of 13:58.89 in the same race in Helsinki 1998 where Haile Gebrselassie (ETH) broke the World record.

Jackson Kipchogo Rono of Kenya bettered his fourth place finish from this same marathon last year to grab the third place this time in a personal best time 2:14:23; he had run 2:15:10 in Pyongyang last year.

Ri Hyon U, sixth last year with then a personal best 2:16:55, was the top North Korean in the race in a time of 2:14:45 to finish fourth ahead of 36-year-old Brighton Chipere (ZIM), who clocked 2:14:50 for the fifth place, personal best as well.

Mirko Jalava for the IAAF