Zersenay Tadesse (Eritrea) and Lornah Kiplagat (Netherlands) won the inaugural titles at the IAAF World Road Running Championships on Sunday in Debrecen, Hungary. The 20 kilometer race replaced the global half marathon championship on IAAF’s calendar.
On a 5K loop course, Tadesse, the 2004 Olympic 10,000m bronze medalist, won in 56:01 minutes, just missing Haile Gebrselasie’s world best by 13 seconds. Two Kenyans followed: Robert Kipchumba finished second in 56:41, and Wilson Kiprotich Kebenei was third in 57:21.
In the women’s race, Kiplagat needed 63:21 for the win and a new world record, five seconds faster than Paula Radcliffe’s old mark. Constantina Tomescu (Romania), who was the half marathon world champion last year, came in just two seconds behind Kiplagat. Third was Kenyan Rita Jeptoo in 63:47.
Tadesse and Kipchumba went hard from the start, and had a clear advantage well before half way. “The race was fast, but I intended to run quick, and so it really suited my style,” Tadesse said. “In the last few kilometers, I was alone at front. But I enjoy running on my own without anyone around me.”
The women’s race developed differently. Here spectators saw a thrilling duel between Tomescu and Kiplagat, who was second behind the Romanian at last year’s half marathon world championships. The duo passed 15K in 47:10, so both have now the European record for this distance.
“I said to myself, if Constantina wants to run that fast I can go with her,” Kiplagat said. “For me it was not difficult to keep up the pace, and I really wanted the 20K world record back from Paula Radcliffe.” In the last 150 meters, she held off the last desperate attack from Tomescu and won with a two-second margin.
Wodajo and Zaituc Take Cologne Marathon
On the same day as the World Road Running Championships, two big marathons were run in Germany: Cologne and Munich. Teferi Wodajo (Ethiopia) and Luminita Zaituc (Germany) won the Cologne Marathon. Wodajo clocked 2:11:18 hours to finish well ahead of Benjamin Itok (Kenya/2:12:08) and Francis Kiprop (Kenya/2:13:00). Zaituc won the women’s race in 2:28:24, ahead of Sun Weiwei (China/2:29:39) and Elena Tikhonova (Russia/2:45:54). A record number of 26,000 runners participated in various races in Cologne. Besides around 13,500 marathon runners, almost 6,000 athletes participated in the half marathon.
More than 10,000 runners participated in various events at the Munich Marathon, which finishes in the Olympic Stadium. German championships were included in this event, although not a single leading national runner had entered. Matthias Körner won the title with 2:21:55, while Carmen Siewert won the women’s race in 2:47:22.
