Kiplagat dominates New York Mini 10km

New York, USALornah Kiplagat of the Netherlands tore away from the field in the first few hundred yards of the 2005 New York Mini 10K this morning in Manhattan, and ran solo to the win in 31:44. Kiplagat, who also won the Central Park race in 2003, built an 11-second gap at the first mile into a 34-second winning margin over Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia.

On a warm Manhattan morning, Kiplagat started with a faster pace than anyone else cared to match. Prokopcuka, Benita Johnson, Tegla Loroupe, and Margaret Okayo took turns leading the pursuit with the field of 4700 spreading out behind them.

"I expected everybody to be with me," Kiplagat explained after the race. "I looked back and saw a big gap. I said, 'What am I doing? Am I doing something wrong?' I was expecting eight of them to be with me."

Quick early miles

Kiplagat reached the first mile mark in 4:48, one of the fastest opening miles in the Mini's history. Not long after that, the course turned into the interior of the park. On the twisting drives which make up the last miles of the New York City Marathon, Kiplagat's pursuers lost sight of her entirely. "I thought maybe they were saving their strength for the end," Kiplagat said.

Passing two miles in 9:47, on course record pace, Kiplagat had only the race's lead vehicles for company in the humid morning. A hilly third mile, finishing with a climb to the 5K mark, began to dent her resolve, and the 15:25 halfway split erased any chance of the course record. "If I ran under 15:06 at halfway," Kiplagat said, "I would push hard and try to break the course record. When I saw 15:22," [as she approached the clock,] "I knew that [the record] was secure."

"I knew the last part would be tougher"

Kiplagat was now feeling the effects of the humid, 26-degree Celsius day. Having raced and won on this course before, "I knew the last part would be tougher," she said, explaining her desire to be well ahead of record pace in the first half.

"In New York, I feel comfortable. I feel like I'm doing the right thing in the right place. There were a lot of people cheering for me, and I didn't want to disappoint them... I didn't want to blow up in the last miles."

Kiplagat moderated her pace, but at four miles her lead was 38 seconds over Johnson and Prokopcuka, and at five miles it was 45 seconds. She cruised to the finish in 31:44, a victory worth $10,000 plus a $1000 bonus for running under 32:00.

Winner of three previous 10K races so far in 2005, Kiplagat has not yet lost a race this year. After opening her year with a 10km victory in Manchester, England (31:28), with Prokopcuka was only seven seconds behind, she went on to win four other races, including the Rotterdam Marathon (in 2:27:36.)

Kiplagat now plans to focus on the World Half-Marathon Championships in Edmonton, Canada this autumn, in preparation for a fall marathon.

The race for second

Behind Kiplagat, Johnson and Prokopcuka ran with the larger pack through two miles, but through the hilly third mile, they pulled away and ran as a pair for the rest of the race. "In the last mile," said Prokopcuka, "I felt more like I could do it."

Johnson, who ran the London Marathon in April, has only recently returned to hard training in anticipation of running the 10,000m at the Helsinki World Championships, while Prokopcuka had raced several times since winning the Osaka Ladies Marathon in January. In the end, Prokopchuka's speed was better, as she opened a six-second gap on the former World Cross Country champion, finishing in 32:18 to Johnson's 32:24. Both Prokopchuka and Johnson plan to contest the 10,000m in Helsinki.

Loroupe, a five-time winner of this event, took fourth in 32:52, an encouraging performance less than two days after running a track 5000m in Ostrava on Thursday. Yuri Kano of Japan rounded out the top five in 33:05.

First run in 1972, the New York Mini 10K is the longest-running all-women's race in the world. Past winners include Paula Radcliffe, Susan Chepkemei, Deena Kastor, and Grete Waitz.

Parker Morse for the IAAF