Joseph Ngeny on his way to victory in Dubai (© Victah Sailer)
The New Year’s major road running season gets underway as usual with the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon, and the man who arrived last year as a pacemaker and went away as champion returns to defend his title. Joseph Ngeny of Kenya took advantage of a month’s postponement of the event last year, due to the sudden death of Dubai’s ruler, and came back in February ready to race rather than pace.
“I was pacing to 30k, but at 25k, I still felt strong, and I could see the guys were starting to drop away,” said Ngeny, who hails from Kericho in the Western Highlands of Kenya. “I felt confident then that I could win”. And so he did, although the hotter temperatures in late February militated against fast times, and he ran 2:13:07.
Conditions for Friday’s race (12 Jan) are quite the reverse, it’s been unseasonably cool in Dubai for the last month, and expected temperatures around the mid-teens centigrade suggest that a time approaching Joseph Kahuga’s race record of 2:09:33, set in 2003 could be possible.
In any case, there will be a course record, because there is a change of course for this eighth edition of the race. “Nobody here really knew what a marathon was when we started, so we couldn’t go through the main areas of town back then,” said Race Director, Peter Connerton yesterday. “But the course now is top-class in terms of sights and, hopefully speed,” added Connerton. The highlight of the course, which follows the sea for much of the race is the turn just before halfway, by the celebrated Burj Al Arab, the only 7-star hotel in the world.
European recordholder to act as pace
And in a reversal of recent protocol, which normally sees Kenyans pacing other marathoners, Ngeny is getting a top-class European pacemaker in Benoit Zwierzchlewski of France. The European record holder, with his 2:06:36 from Paris ’03, Benoit Zed (as he is universally known) broke his hip when he fell in the New York Marathon the following year. He has not run a marathon since, but after a fourth place in the Nice 10k last week, in 28.47 agreed to come and pace. “I’m happy to run whatever pace you want,” he told a bemused Ngeny at the press conference on Wednesday morning”.
Fast women - top prizes!
A recent injury means that women’s champion, Delilah Asiago from Kenya cannot defend, which makes Ethiopian, Askale Magarsa, best of 2:27:57, the favourite, albeit there will be much interest in the return after pregnancy of Renata Paradowska of Poland, who ran 2:27:17 when she placed second in Boston ’98.
There is also an increase in prize money, with over $150,000 on offer, including $30,000 for the winners, providing they run sub-2.15 (men) and sub-2.32 (women).
Pat Butcher for the IAAF
