Chepchumba and El Mouaziz winners in London
Marathon
18 April – Kenyan Joyce Chepchumba won her second decisive victory in the London
Marathon today, as she crossed the line in 2:23:22, improving her personal best by 36
seconds and establishing the fastest marathon time ever in a women only race.
Morocco’s Abdelkader El Mouaziz broke away from the leaders 15km out from the finish
to build up a two-minute lead and win the men’s race a second off the course record,
with a finishing time of 2:07:57.
With Nicole Carroll from Australia making much of the early running, the lead position was taken over by Adriana Fernandez (MEX), until Chepchumba made her move with five kilometres to go.
From then on, it was a won race, with Chepchumba looking perfectly at ease as she gradually built up a 30 second lead ahead of Fernandez, who was visibly showing the strain of following in the young Kenyan’s wake.
Chepchumba collected a 125,000 dollar bonus from UK Athletics for her performance, as it bettered by three seconds the 2:23:24 mark set by Romania’s Lydia Simon in Osaka on 31 January, which the race organisers considered as the world best performance for a women’s only race. Chepchumba also collected $55,000 for her first place.
The IAAF world best performance of 2:20:47, was set by Chepchumba’s training partner and compatriot Tegla Loroupe in the Rotterdam marathon last year, in a mixed race.
El Mouaziz was plainly in pain as he crossed the finish line in London, but the fact that he revenged his defeat by Portugal’s Antonio Pinto in last year’s edition, no doubt compensated the suffering of the final kilometres.
In 1998, El Mouaziz had adopted the same tactics and broken from the leaders early, only to see Abel Anton (ESP) kick ahead 600m from the finish. This year again, Anton and Pinto hung back and accelerated dramatically in the closing stages, but left it too late to recover the massive lead established by El Mouaziz and came in second with 2:08:59. Defending London champion and reigning world champion Abel Anton came in third in 2:09:40.
Neither Josiah Thugwane (RSA), the Olympic Champion, nor Ronaldo da Costa (BRA), owner of the world best for the distance finished among the front runners.
See the official London Marathon site for full results and Runners World online for further reports
