News01 Oct 2006

Unheralded Kipchom the winner in Kosice Peace Marathon

Edwin Kipchom wins in Kosice (© Anton Macej)

Kosice, SlovakiaUnheralded 22yearold Kenyan Edwin Kipchom, from the Italian base of Dr. Gabriele Rosa, was the surprise winner of the 83rd edition of the oldest marathon in Europe, the International Peace Marathon in the eastern Slovak city of Kosice.

Kichom achieved a new personal best of 2:12:54, the fourth fastest time ever at the event. It was his first win in three career marathons -- last year he clocked 2:16:42 for 12th in Beijing and 2:13:03 this year for 3rd in Thessaloniki, Greece.

At the 19th kilometre he sharpened up the pace with sub-three minute kilometres and nobody stayed with him. From then one it was a solo effort and a race against the clock. He was well ahead of course record pace at 25 km 1:17:17 (1:08 ahead) and still at 30 Km which he reached in 1:32:55 (36 seconds ahead). But being alone he was not able to make it and at 40 kilometres (2:05:34) was just two seconds ahead. He still was the clear winner and promised: "I will come back next year to defend my title. But give me some rabbits for the second half and I think I can break 2:10," said Kipchom, who hails from Marakwet in the Rift Valley and who has been running for just four years.

A strong finish by Belorussian Vladimir Tsyamchik (2:14:46) was enough for second place while last year winner David Maiyo finished third in 2:15:15, the second best time of his career. It was the fifth Kenyan win in the event's history and with nine runners below 2:20, it was most since 1997 when the current flat city course has been used.

Solo win for Kulesh in women's race

Belorussian Natalya Kulesh (formerly Kravets) was already leading clearly at halfway and finished with new personal best of 2:36:47, a significant improvement from her previous best of 2:39:20 set earlier this year in Debno, Poland. It was also the fifth best female time ever at the event.

"I had very good preparation in Poland so was ready for a fast time. The course is great and maybe with some pacemakers we would be able to run even faster," she explained. Second placed Holly May from Great Britain also bettered her best to 2:41:48 - from 2:44:59 this year in London. "After halfway I started to struggle, but the spectators around the course helped me a lot. Actually I wanted to break 2:40, but I did not succeeded," she said.

The biggest worries of the organisers was the weather forecast, because it was supposed to be very hot with temperatures well over 20 degrees C. But at the end of the day it was not so. Clouds helped the runners in the second half and the temperature didn't rise above 19 degrees C.

In all, 2935 runners in different races and categories from 34 countries participated: the Marathon had 674 runners with 662 in the Half Marathon 662. The event prooved itself as the biggest and best one in this category in the country.

Alfons Juck for the IAAF