Kosgei: Sight of finish line gave me hope

Salina Kosgei, of Kenya, (front) crosses the finish line of the 113th running of the Boston Marathon in front of second place finisher Dire Tune, of Ethiopia, (back) in Boston, Massachusetts April 20, 2009. Photo/REUTERS

The new Boston Marathon champion Salina Kosgei said Monday’s race was so close that she was not sure of winning until the very last few metres.

“When I saw the tape, I realised that I had some energy to push,” Kosgei said during a reception hosted in her honour by the Kenya Prisons service and attended by the Prisons commissioner Isaiah Ougo.

“The race was tough. I had to run a tactical race because Tune is very strong and I had to devise a strategy to win,” she recounted. The duel started after only two kilometres from when it became a cat and mouse game with the two leaders exchanging the lead several times.”

She looked simple in a white polo-neck light sweater and ordinary jeans as she pulled an equally simple bag on arrival from Boston on Wednesday night.

In tow were Daniel Rono - who finished second to Ethiopia’s Deriba Merga - Robert Cheruiyot (fifth), Helena Kirop (fifth) and Robert Kipkoech among others. Only a small band of colleagues from Kenya Prisons, among them her husband Barnabas Kinyor – himself a former hurdler – were on hand to receive Kosgei.

Boston marathon was the first major city marathon race victory for 32-year old mother of two who has also won in Paris, Singapore and Prague. She has also competed at the Berlin, New York and London.

Kosgei ran 2:26:30 at last year’s London Marathon, her second consecutive fourth place finish there, and broke 2:30 again at the Beijing Olympics where she was 10th in 2:29:28.