Kenya Dominates Marseille-Cassis Classique Marathon
The appalling weather conditions at Cassis, France, did not hinder Kenyan athletes from bagging titles at 32nd edition of the International Marseille-Cassis Classique Marathon. Throughout the race, Philemon Limo and Diane Chepkemoi, the Kenyan
runners, did not leave any room for the Ethiopian rivals to outperform them.
The Marseille-Cassis Classique Marathon, which is an IAAF Silver Label Road Race, was organized at the Stadium Velodrome in Marseille.
As the race began, John Kyui, the Kenyan outsider who also happened to be the winner of 2006 edition, took an early lead. Right from the beginning, he was several meters ahead of the groups of 17 runners, which also comprised Samwel Shauri from Tanzania
who was the favourite for the race. However, Shauri soon appeared to be almost out of the contention.
As the race covered initial 5km distance, Kyui was caught by Abraham Kiprotich, the French runner. From this point, Kiprotich took the lead and Kyui went at the second position. By then, the cloudy weather turned into heavy rain accompanied by strong wind
which decimated the leading group of seventeen into just 9 individuals.
At the ascent of the Col de la Gineste, Kiprotich had gone back while the race was once again a matter of Kenya versus Ethiopia traditional rivalry. As the race entered into its hardest phase; the leading group further reduced into 4 athletes.
Dramatically, the wind at this point calmed down as soon as the leading contingent of Robert Ndiwa, Philemon Limo, Yrsaw Tegene and Belete Assefa took along the Mediterranean Sea. The competition at this point was rather thrilling that the first refreshment
station present on the road was completely ignored by the quarter.
After crossing the Plateau de le Carpagne, Limo started pacing up while covering the downhill stretch. This posed serious threat to rather race ambitious Tegene who did not take long before following the suit.
At this point rain and wind both blew harder than ever. 20-years old Blete from Kenya tried hiding himself behind the Kenyan rival with the hope to make it to become the first Ethiopian ever to win the Marseille-Cassis Classique Marathon. After 8km down
the line, Ndiwa too was closely following the leading duo.
After about 48 minutes of the race, Belete proved to be the first who started showing the signs of fatigue. Even at this point, the athlete was frustrated enough to check over his shoulder to evaluate his opposition. On the contrary, even just 3 km before
the finishing line, Limo was looking quite relaxed and was making the strides with confidence down to the Cassis.
The last difficult section of the race comprised of a short brutal climb appeared at the Cote des Pompiers, which resulted in increasing the gap between the leading athletes. Belete, amid a lack of concentration eventually missed a turn and had to retrace
his steps; this thrown him out of the contention for the victory. On the contrary, while leading from the front, Limo not only kept his pace, he also managed to avoid the potentially slippery puddles of water which had been formed by the rain on the corners
of Cassis’ flooded roads.
At the end of the race, the race record of fifty nine minutes and one second, made by James Kwambai in 2002 remained safe as the 25-years old limo crossed the finishing line in one hour, one minute and thirty five seconds. Considering the hostile and appalling
weather conditions, even this was marvellous depiction of fast time. Belete who had been drifted from the leading group eventually managed to bag the second position, while with a difference of 5 second Ndiwa ended up third.
On women’s side, though Ethiopians attempted to control the track right from the start and till initial 5 km remained successful in doing so, but the final results unexpectedly fell in favour of Diane Chepkemoi from Kenya. In presence of athletes like Ermebt
Bedada, the winner of Turin Half Marathon held last month, Beleynesh Oljira, Jane Kiptoo and Josephine Kimuyu, though Chepkemoi was rather invisible, but the girl depicted her potential quite consistently.
She remained in the leading group till half of the distance, where from she started drifting apart from the rest of the runners and made it to the finishing line in an emphatic one hour, ten minutes and thirty six seconds. She finished two minutes ahead
of her close runner up Oljira who took one hour, twelve minutes and twenty six seconds to cross the line. With a difference of further 25 seconds, Kiptoo finished third.
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