Josephat Ngetich braved the rain and triumphed in Athens. © www.photorun.net
The Kenyan runner Josephat Ngetich won the 27th edition of the Alpha Bank Athens Classic Marathon on Sunday. He’s been nicknamed “Wanjiru” after the Olympic gold medalist in 2008, Sammy Wanjiru, and following his race on Sunday, he has lived up to that nickname. Akemi Ozaki of Japan took the women’s title in a race often beset by rain.
The 23-year-old Ngetich celebrated the first win of his career in only his third marathon. He finished the famous historical race, which winds from the town of Marathon, where the classic competition originated, to Athens in 2:13:44 hours—ahead of his compatriots Edwin Kipchom (2:14:18) and Pius Mutuku (2:14:39). Ozaki celebrated her triumph in the Panathinaikos stadium, the place of the first Olympics of the modern era in 1896, running 2:39:56. Ethiopian Eshetu Degefa (2:40:32) and the Belarusian, Sviatlana Kouhan (2:40:54) took third and fourth respectively. Including the shorter distance races held in conjunction, nearly 12,000 runners took part in the Athens Classic Marathon.
A lead pack of 12 runners formed soon after the race began in pouring rain. As the course began its climb from the ten-kilometer mark, the large pack began to thin. By the 32K mark, it was down to three: eventual winner Ngetich, Kipchom, and Belachew Alemayehu Ameta of Ethiopia. As the course dropped down towards Athens, Kipchom lost contact. The decisive move came in the final two kilometer as Ngetich broke away from Alemayehu Ameta. The Ethiopian ended up finishing fourth in 2:14:51.
“I first started thinking I could win in Athens when I was at the training camp in Kapsabet. I knew I would win from 35K onwards,” explained Ngetich afterwards. Last year in Brescia, Italy, Ngetich finished third on his marathon debut in 2:17:09.
This meant the Kenyan, nicknamed “Wanjiru” by his training partners because his size and running style are similar to the former Kenyan Olympic Gold Medal winner, Sammy Wanjiru, set a personal best in Athens despite the tough course. The rain in the first half of the race didn’t seem to bother Ngetich. “That [the rain] helped me stay cool,” said the winner. In Kapsabet, Ngetich has some world-class training partners including Martin Lel, winner of several London Marathon titles and James Kwambai, who jointly holds the second fastest marathon time ever with Duncan Kibet at 2:04:27.
Akemi Ozaki wins the Athens Classic Marathon. © www.photorun.net
Athens also marked the second consecutive win for a Japanese women’s champion, although this outcome was anything but assured at the midpoint of the race. Akemi Ozaki dropped off the pace shortly after the leading group had gone through halfway in 1:20:38. “The others increased the tempo at this point but I wanted to run more even pace,” said the 32-year-old Ozaki afterwards. Her tactics proved to be the right ones.
By 30K, she regained contact with the leading group comprised of Eshetu Degefa Bruktavit, Sviatlana Kouhan, and the eventual fourth-place finisher, Natalya Volgina (2:41:48). Ozaki made a decisive break at 39K and ran on to victory. Just two months ago, she finished second in the Sapporo Marathon where she ran a personal best of 2:27:23. Last year, her compatriot Mai Tagami won the Athens title in 2:36:58.
“It’s a very tough course but the rain on the other hand was not a problem for me,” said Ozaki, who in contrast to many leading Japanese runners, does not run for a company but a running club by the name of “Second Wind” in Tokyo. She made sure that her “second wind” earned her a first place in Athens!
Gebrselassie Looks for World Record in Dubai
Haile Gebrselassie. Ethiopia’s world-record holder for the marathon will be going for the record in Dubai once again. The 36-year-old won both in 2008 and 2009 on what is probably the flattest marathon course in the world.
“I’m as confident as ever that I can break the world record in Dubai. But everything has to be perfect so I can’t make predictions,” said Gebrselassie. Looking back at last year’s race, he said, “I still can’t understand why I didn’t run a world record in 2008—everything was perfect, only the pace at the start was too fast. One year later the heavy rain was a big problem and in addition to that I wasn’t 100 percent fit. That I won under those conditions and ran well was a real success for me.” The organizers have improved the course in comparison with last year, taking out a series of corners. The new course has just one corner, two turns, and three inclines!
In September, Gebrselassie won the Berlin Marathon for the fourth consecutive occasion, clocking 2:06:08 hours. He ran 60:04 minutes to win the Porto Half-Marathon in Portugal in October, his first race since Berlin. He has one race planned in his build-up for the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon when he runs the New Year’s Eve 8K race in Trier in Germany on December 31.
