Kiplagat and Kiprop bag double half marathon at Nanning
By claiming the World title at the SINOPEC World Half Marathon Championships, Wilson Kiprop has not only leveled the record of Zersenay Tadese as the World’s premier half marathoner, he also joined Florence Kiplagat on top of the Nanning podium for completing
his first national double victory since 1999.
This was the fourth time in the history of the event that runners from one nation ran to gold since its inception in 1992. The rest of the three were Kenyan pairs as well. In 1999 Tegla Loroupe won her third of three titles in a row while Tergat collected
his second for two victories. 2010 was perhaps the lucky year for Kiprop and Kiplagat to follow the duo.
Kipro, while sharing his views with the media personnel said that for Kenya, this was perhaps the first men’s win after a long time and he was happy about that.
Just a month ago when Kipro depicted his pre-credentials particularly making it in just fifty-nine minutes and thirty-nine seconds over the distance, he was placed among the biggest threats to World record holder Tadese. Even at Nanning the triumph remained
undecided until the final 200 meters of acute struggle, which showed Kipro’s potential coming out with each strong stride.
Talking about the final decisive moments of the race he said that he was not confident because he knew it right from the start that final battle would take place in the last 200 meters. And for that he kept on holding himself. “In last 100 meters I had known
it that I was strong and was able to overdo the others” Kipro added further.
However, the observers did not see the athlete depicting confidence unless he finally made it to the finishing line. Readily admitting the observers’ point of view Kipro said that he was quite weak before the race. A day before the event he could not sleep
until midnight as he was thinking about all the top guys participating in the race. He was rather fearful and was constantly pondering upon the ways to outdo the rest of the guys on the field. He said that even in the morning he was quite upset and was trembling
when he walked to the toilet, for him this was rather a big event to be lost.
Despite the 22 C temperature and 65% humidity in the air, both Kiprop and Kiplagat seemed calm throughout the race. The thought which kept occupying their minds was to bounce back from the journey to Nanning. It was a whirlwind adventure and hectic journey
which ended with tons of satisfaction for both of the athletes.
Talking about her journey to the race Kiplagat said that they flew from Nairobi to Dubai where they had to wait for five long hours, then they flew to Beijing where again they had to wait for three hours before finally getting the flight to Nanning. In all
that hectic travelling she did not include the time she had been flying from one destination to the other.
However, Kiprop expressed his thoughts about how tiring that long travel had been for them. He said that while finally reaching the hotel he was so tired and was feeling a lot of stiffness in his body. In order to cool the body though he took a long bath,
but nevertheless it was quite difficult.
For a man like Kiprop, who has to borrow money even while travelling through bus in his own city, the long distance event paid back.
After winning the event he had risen in his ranks which have included national and African 10,000m titles at home fields running in the high altitude of Nairobi.
Though he had already run a marathon in Prague in May where he depicted an impressive previous best (PB) of two hours nine minutes and nine seconds, but he was not yet ready to consider running for the longer distances.
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