Kenyans Dominate Womens Marathon

27 AUG2011

Kenya dominated the women's marathon event on the opening day of the World Championships in Daegu, filling the podium places with Edna Kiplagat claiming gold. Policewoman Kiplagat put aside a false start and a fall at a drinks station to recover and win ahead of compatriots Priscah Jeptoo and Sharon Cherop in 2:28:43.

The race was run on a multi-lap loop course in downtown Daegu. The temperature was 27 degrees celsius (80.6 degrees fahrenheit) at the start of the race with high humidity. The early pace was slow and at half way 30 women were within a few seconds of each other with no clear leader. Even with 10km left there were still almost 20 women in contention at the front.

Kiplagat then made a break with Cherop, Jeptoo and Ethiopia's Aberu Kebede in close pursuit. The race took a dramatic turn at the penultimate water station when Kiplagat crossed in front of teammate Sharon Cherop and fell to the ground. Kiplagat however recovered from the mishap to pull away with three kilometers left.

Kiplagat, New York marathon champion 2010 and third earlier this year at the Virgin London marathon with a personal best of 2:20:48, was running in her first world championships.

Susan Partridge was the first British runner home, ending just shy of the London 2012 A-standard in 24th, her time of 2:35:57 not enough, Teammate Alyson Dixon ended 42nd in 2:50:51.

Attention now turns to top British hopeful Mo Farah who competes in the men's 10,000m tomorrow at 11.30am and millions of occasional 10k runners across the UK will watch as the best distance runner in the world this year attempts to enter the champion's pantheon and signal his intentions for the London Olympics.