Victories for Gebremariam and Kiplagat at New York City Marathon
The Ethiopian runner Gebre Gebremariam and Edna Kiplagat from Kenya have respectively won the men’s and women’s races at ING New York City Marathon which had entered into its fifth decade with a swarming 45,344 entrants.
The ING New York City Marathon, which enjoys the status of being an IAAF Gold Label Road Race, was the first marathon ever of Gebremariam’s career which began on a perfect day on an impeccable course as the temperature at the beginning was around 10 C which
rose a little by the end of the event.
Halfway through the race, Gebremariam, the winner was running just like one of the usual mob of 20 athletes. However, he was keeping an eye over the leading runner Haile Gebrselassie who had crossed the halfway mark in one hour, five minutes and nineteen
seconds. At that stage of the event, tweaking the leading runner and the world record holder was not at all something wise, so Gebremariam, just like other runners, simply kept the pace which would keep him from being left far behind.
A couple of minutes later, good luck for Gebremariam surfaced when running the downhill at the end of the Queenbobo Bridge, the world record holder Gebrselassie, amid his knee pain, slowed down, moved to the right and eventually stopped.
This was rather a turning point in the race, going up First Avenue, the traditional point for the hard racing, Kenyan Emmanuel took some quick strides leaving the leading group of eight runners behind and dropping the 2009 winner Meb Keflezighi from USA
behind with a greater distance.
The mile 18, covered in four minutes and thirty two seconds, thinned the leading pack into four, comprising of Gebremariam, Mutai, Abderrahime Bouramdane from Morocco and James Kwambai from Kenya.
In Mile 21, Gebremariam and Mutai ran side by side into the Central Park until the 40 kilometers mark where with decisive strides Gebremariam moved away. He made it to cross the finishing line in two hours, eight minutes and fourteen seconds. With making
it to the end point in two hours, nine minutes and eighteen seconds, Mutai stood second. Moses Kigen Kipkosgei, who had been lost in the mob eventually finished like hurricane for claiming the third position while clocking two hours, ten minutes and thirty
nine minutes. With a distance of twelve seconds Adberrahim Goumri also crossed Kwambai for fourth position.
While talking to the media reporters, the debut runner Gebremariam said: “Before the race I thought I would be happy to finish. To win makes me happy. It’s my first marathon, and I am Number one here.”
On women’s side, the race began with an equally large lead where a pack of 20 runners was considerably ahead of the rest of the athletes. The leading group crossed the halfway distance in one hour, fifteen minutes and forty seven seconds. The pack remained
consistently thick even after Mile 21; there seemed about a dozen possible winners of the race.
However, soon after that point the debutants Mary Keitany from Kenya and Shalane Flangan from USA made the surges and reduced the leading pack to three runners, where the third one was the Los Angeles winner Edna Kiplagat. Inside the central park where there
were just two miles to go for the finishing line, Flanagan made a stride, moving away and building a five-meters lead, but it was not for long and soon she faded to the third position.
This was the time for Kiplagat to make the final move. She moved ahead, slowly at first and eventually increased her pace and crossed the finishing line in two hours and twenty eight minutes and twenty seconds. Flanagan passed the broken Keitany to claim
the second position for two hours, twenty eight minutes and forty seconds. For crossing the finishing line in two hours, twenty nine minutes and one second, Keitany stood for the third position in the race.
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