Navigation
Newsworthy
World Championships in Athletics: Despite Tumble, Edna Kiplagat Runs Away with Marathon Title
Photo above by Takashi Ito, www.PhotoRun.net: Edna Kiplagat concludes her Daegu race for marathon gold in 2:28:43.
By David Monti (c) 2011 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved.
Used with permission.
DAEGU (27-Aug)--For more than two hours, everything was going according to plan for Kenya's Edna Kiplagat at this morning's IAAF World Championships marathon for women. In cloudy, warm and very humid conditions in South Korea, the race had moved through the first half in a leisurely 76:46, and Kiplagat was just riding along at the back of a 30-woman lead pack, saving her energy.
"It was part of my strategy to run my second half faster," Kiplagat told reporters after the race. "As I was training, I knew the weather would be humid. And I knew it was going to be warm."
When the pace finally picked up past 30 kilometers, Edna Kiplagat's plan was still working just fine. She and teammates Sharon Cherop and Priscah Jeptoo, and Ethiopia's Aberu Kebede, would eventually pull away from the field. Kiplagat, the 2010 ING New York City Marathon champion, felt confident and started to push the pace even harder in a bid for victory.
"At 33 kilometers, I tried to run in front of the group," she said. "When I looked back two times I found the group was not running quick, following me. So I tried to put in more effort. I [wanted] to push [the pace], run faster and win the race."
Aberu Kebede dropped back (she would finish 12th), and Kiplagat's acceleration allowed her to put some daylight on both of her teammates. But Sharon Cherop fought back, and drew even with Kiplagat in advance of a water station in the 38th kilometer.
Then disaster struck. Sharon Cherop reached to the right for a bottle, and Edna Kiplagat did the same in front of her. The two tangled their legs, and Kiplagat fell hard to the pavement. Cherop paused to see if her teammate was all right.
"It was not my fault," Cherop said after the race. "But seeing that my friend had fallen down, I had to wait for her."
Edna Kiplagat got up quickly, shaking off the initial impact.
"Yes I was a little shocked," she admitted. "[I was thinking], I don't know if I'm going to get up and pick up [the pace] again. [But] I found myself running good again. It was a surprise."
In the remaining kilometers, Edna Kiplagat continued to gather steam. By the 40K mark, she was 11 seconds ahead of Cherop, who had slipped to third, and nine seconds advantage on Jeptoo. The Kenyans were going to sweep the podium, and Kiplagat would become only the second Kenyan woman after Catherine Ndereba (2007, 2003) to win a world marathon title.
"Being the first time representing my country in a championships, I'm very happy being the winner today," Kiplagat commented.
Edna Kiplagat completed her second half in a swift 71:57, to clock 2:28:43 at the finish. Jeptoo followed in 2:29:00 to take the silver, and Cherop ran 2:29:14 to take the bronze. Cherop had to push the final meters to avoid being overtaken by Ethiopia's Bezunesh Bekele, who finished fourth in 2:29:21.
In the World Marathon Cup, which is scored based on the top-3 times from each five-woman team, Ethiopia finished second behind Kenya, and the Chinese--led by Zhu Xiaolin in sixth place--finished third.The best finish by an American came from Tera Moody, who was 17th in 2:32:04. She ran most of the race with the lead group before fading in the final kilomters. Photo at left by Jiro Mochizuki www.PhotoRun.net: Tera Moody while leading the race.
"I wanted to run my own race and block everybody out," said Tera Moody, who lives in Colorado Springs. She said she needed to stay on at the leaders' pace, because she didn't have the ability to run a superfast second half.
"I'm not going to close in 1:10," Moody said. [Her marathon best is 2:30:53, 2010 Chicago Marathon]
From USA Track & Field:
The marathon saw the field go out in a very large front pack, with 27 women running within seconds of each other through 25 kilometers. The women ran along a three-loop course through downtown Daegu. Tera Moody ran in the mix with the leaders, even spending time at the front of the pack. The group went through 5K in 18:34; 10K in 36:26; 15K in 54:11; 20K in 1:12:39 and 25K in 1:30:35.
By 30K the pack thinned to 19 runners, but Moody stayed with the pack as they split in 1:48:35. Then the leaders made a break for it over the next five kilometers, and the pack disintegrated with only four women leading the race. By 35K, Moody was 1:11 behind the leaders and split 2:06:30. By the 40K mark, eventual winner Edna Kiplagat of Kenya pulled away from the rest of the field and maintained her lead to win in 2:28:43. Moody finished in her second-best time ever in 2:32:04 to place 17th.
The rest of the U.S. squad: Kathy Newberry of Ann Arbor, MI was 30th in 2:37:28; Alisa McKaig was 32nd in 2:38:23; Colleen De Reuck of Boulder, CO was 38th in 2:44:35; and Zoila Gomez of Alamosa, CO was 40th in 2:46:44. This was a first World Championship appearance for Newberry, McKaig and Gomez. In the Marathon World Cup team scores, Team USA took sixth place.
Quotes from Tera Moody: I am very pleased, I think I executed very well . . . I am only a little disappointed because I got confused at the end and thought it was 42K . . . so two girls got me right at the end. I wanted to be top 15 . . . definitely room for improvement . . . I’m coming back from four months off with recent surgeries.