Wanjiru wastes no time in London Marathon

Published on Sunday 26 April 2009 22:40

OLYMPIC gold medallist Sammy Wanjiru overcame a spirited late challenge after a savage early pace to win the men's London marathon in a course record two hours, five minutes and 10 seconds.

Wanjiru, 22, broke the mark set by Kenyan team-mate Martin Lel last year by five seconds after repulsing a determined victory bid from Ethiopia's Beijing bronze medallist Tsegaye Kebede. Lel withdrew from the race on Saturday after a soft tissue hip injury failed to respond to treatment.

Defending champion Irina Mikitenko retained the women's title with an assured victory over Britain's Mara Yamauchi in 2:22:11. Yamauchi recorded a personal best 2:23:12 to provide the enthusiastic crowds packing the streets of London with ample consolation for the absence through injury of world-record holder Paula Radcliffe.

Wanjiru, the first Kenyan to win an Olympic marathon gold, stayed with the pacemakers as they took the field through the first half of the race in a searing 61 minutes 35 seconds. It was the fastest half-way split time ever recorded in a marathon and the effort required to stay in the leading group inevitably took its toll as the field emerged from London's docklands on a bright, sunny spring morning.

Wanjiru seized his moment to break the leading pack at 29km and the race then resolved into a battle between the three Olympic medallists.

Kebede trailed Wanjiru over the final kilometres with silver medallist and twice world champion Jaouad Gharib a place further back. Roared on by the thousands of spectators crammed on to the London streets, Kebede started to make ground on Wanjiru, who glanced anxiously several times over his shoulder. The Kenyan responded with one final surge to cross the line ten seconds ahead of Kebede with Gharib holding on for third. Wanjiru is now the seventh fastest man on the all-time list.

The Kenyan said he had been happy with the pace and would have been even happier if the pacemakers had continued to around the 35-km mark. "It was a very tough finish," he said. "Over the final 200 metres I felt I could win. To get the course record is fabulous, but all I wanted to do was win."

The women's race was soon reduced to a three-way battle between Mikitenko, Yamauchi and Chinese Olympic bronze medallist Zhou Chunxiu. Zhou dropped off the pace at 27km and Mikitenko made her move five kilometres later, steadily increasing her lead over Yamauchi.

However, Yamauchi easily surpassed her pre-race ambitions with the best performance of her career yesterday morning. The 35-year-old Japan-based runner

was in contention to pull off a surprise win until Mikitenko put in two massive kicks to pull herself well clear with six miles of the race remaining.

Yamauchi looked a strong contender from the off and stayed with the fast early pace which saw many of her world-class rivals, including Olympic champion Constantina Ditak fall off the pace in the first three miles.

But when Mikitenko turned up the pressure after getting a second wind, the Briton could not match her opponent, Mikitenko becoming the first woman to defend her title since Radcliffe achieved the feat in 2003 with the second of her three victories.

Russian Liliya Shobukhova emerged from the chasing pack to take third place on her marathon debut. Mikitenko, 36, who emigrated to Germany from Kazakhstan, has now won three out of the four marathons she has entered since graduating from the track but missed the Beijing Olympics because of a back injury.

Meanwhile, Britain's Dave Weir was denied a fourth successive London Marathon wheelchair win by a late surge from Australian Kurt Fearnley.

Londoner Weir had beaten Fearnley on the final straight last year but the two-time Paralympic champion had his revenge, pipping his rival to win in one hour, 28 minutes and 57 seconds.

In the women's race, American Amanda McGrory beat defending champion Sandra Graf of Switzerland. Britain's Shelly Woods was sixth.

&#149 London Olympic marathon hope Andrew Lemoncello (Fife) has smashed his personal best for the 10,000 metres by more than half a minute by clocking 27mins 57.23 secs at the Brutus Hamilton Invitational in California.