Matthew Kisorio - Kim Smith impress as Rock ‘n’ Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon marks a new history
This year’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon turned out to be a historical moment as Kenyan athlete, Matthew Kisorio and Kim Smith from New Zealand carved out new US All-Comers’ Records. The successes in both Men and Women’s events came in the final
strides, as rivals set the stage for cut-throat competition.
In order to pave his way towards success, Kisorio outperformed players like Sammy Kitwara and crossed the finishing line in 58:46 minutes. The previous course record that the kenyan annihilated in the showdown stood at 58:55 minutes and belonged to Ethiopian
living legend, Haile Gebrselassie, which he observed back in 2006.
Similarly, Smith emerged in the challenge posed by Ethiopia’s Werknesh Kidane. In order to do away with the previous record of one hour, seven minutes and 36 seconds, she observed a finish of one hour, seven minutes and 11 seconds.
Commenting upon the performance displayed by respective players, Rod Dixon, an Olympic Medallist and Marathon champion of the 1983 New York City Marathon, said, “The Time were unbelievable. As we keep moving on in history, the bar keeps getting lower. Pretty
soon, if you put up one or two million dollars in prize money, you will see someone run a Marathon under two hours.”
Cherishing the event, another veteran, Jim Ryun, the US Olympic silver medal winner said, “The times were fantastic. It was so beautiful to see. Their strides and their form were wonderful. They were very strong at the finish.”
Just like experts, Kisorio, the long distance runner from Kenya, who is schedule to line-up for the New York Marathon this November, while commenting upon his race in Philadelphia said, “I was looking to run my fastest ever. I have been training hard in
Kenya for the last two months. When I saw my watch at 10k, I knew I could run under 60 (minutes). This course is fantastic.”
As the race kicked-off, the 22-year-old Kenyan, along with Kitwara, decided to pull away from rest of the lot and continue to match their shoulders until they had the final hill to go, before crossing the finishing line. This was the time when Kisorio, who
still was looking quite fresh, opened up his final strides which were difficult to match for Kitwara.
Being unable to uphold the challenge in final moments of the competition, Kitwara said that going up the hill was not an easy task, and thus it became difficult for him to keep pace with the ultimate dominator. However, he put his act together in the final
moments and finished just two seconds behind Kisorio. The time clocked by both runners was the fourth and fifth fastest ever for the distance.
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