Edna Kiplagat won in Virginia Beach for the second year in a row. © www.photorun.net

Over the Labor Day weekend, KIMbia’s Edna Kiplagat celebrated an especially sweet victory. The 27-year-old Kenyan was a clear winner of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half-Marathon in 71:14 minutes in Virginia Beach, thereby defending the title she won last year in what was then her first half marathon. In a high-quality field, including leading women runners from Japan and Ethiopia, the race for a long time was tactical rather than fast. Two kilometers from the finish, Kiplagat broke clear and gained a lead of 8 seconds. Japanese Akane Wakita was second in 1:11:22 hours, and Ethiopian Teyba Erkesso third in 1:11:39. “I went into the race intent on repeating my win of the previous year,” said Kiplagat. Her next race is the Philadelphia Half Marathon this coming weekend.

Kenyans had a firm grip on the men’s race at Virginia Beach. Haron Toroitich won in 62:20 from Yusuf Songoka (62:27). There was also success for the KIMbia team among the men, with Tom Nyariki (Kenya) taking third in 62:30. With 20,000 runners, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half-Marathon is one of the biggest races of its kind in the world.

KIMbia runners also prevailed in Georgia over the Labor Day weekend, with Simon Ndirangu and Luke Kipkoskei placing first and second at the US 10K Classic in Atlanta.

Zhou Chunxiu Takes Lead in World Marathon Majors

For the first time, a Chinese woman has taken the lead in the World Marathon Majors (WMM) series. Zhou Chunxiu, through her second place in the World Championship marathon in Osaka, now has 40 points in the WMM series for 2007-2008, and leads over world champion Catherine Ndereba (Kenya) and the Boston winner, Lidiya Grigoryeva (Russia), both with 25 points. Earlier this year, Zhou won the London marathon in April. In the first WMM series (2006-2007), which finishes this November, Zhou is in second place and, in theory, could still win.

The men’s winner at the World Championships, Luke Kibet (Kenya), received 25 points for his victory there, as with all WMM races. While he, along with the other leading World Championship finishers, will not have any influence on New York, which brings the WMM series 2006-2007 to a close in November, he is alongside the leading men Robert Cheruiyot (Kenya, winner in Boston) and Martin Lel (Kenya, winner in London) in the new series for 2007-2008. Mubarak Hassan Shami (Qatar) was second in Osaka in 2:17:18, and received 15 points, putting him in fourth in the 2007-2008 series rankings. The World Championship bronze medalist Viktor Roethlin (Switzerland) is seventh in the rankings with 10 points.

Ndereba is now fourth in the 2006-2007 series with 35 points. The Kenyan has, however, only a theoretical chance of winning the inaugural WMM series; she would need to win New York, and the women currently in front of her would have to have disastrous fall marathons and not pick up additional points. With 40 points, Zhou is tied with Gete Wami (Ethiopia) for second in the 2006-07 series behind Jelena Prokopcuka (Latvia, 55 points).

Over the two-year cycle, runners can collect points for the respective WMM series, which overlap each other by a year. In this way the million dollar jackpot, shared by the best man and woman, is awarded annually. The marathon races included in the WMM series each year are Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York. In addition the World Championship and Olympic marathon races are included in the standings. Current leadings positions for the debut WMM series (2006-2007) with three races remaining are:

Men:

Women: