Majors deciding race promises real pace

PHOTO | STAN HONDA A security officer stands at the finish line of the New York City Marathon October 31, 2013.

What you need to know:

  • Points are earned from the five marathons plus the World Championship and Olympic Marathons over a two-year period
  • In 2012 Super Storm Sandy devastated New York and led to the cancellation of the marathon

Sunday’s New York Marathon will be part of the battle for road running’s biggest prize purse: the million-dollar World Marathon Majors.

The World Marathon Majors was launched in 2006 by the big five city marathons London, New York, Boston, Chicago and Berlin – to raise the profile of the sport and increase interest in elite running among athletics enthusiasts.

Points are earned from the five marathons plus the World Championship and Olympic Marathons over a two-year period. Tokyo Marathon joined the WMM series this year. The first to fifth placed athletes earn 25, 15, 10, 5 and 1 points respectively and their best four marathons in a two-year cycle determines their final score.

The men’s and women’s winners then split the million-dollar purse. In the women’s race, two-time world champion Edna Kiplagat will be battling London Marathon champion and Olympic silver medallist Priscah Jeptoo. The two are very evenly matched having gone 2-2 in their career marathon meetings. Kiplagat beat Priscah at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu and the 2012 London Marathon. But Jeptoo beat Kiplagat at the London Olympics and this year’s London Marathon.

Rita Jeptoo is in first place with 65 points from a second place finish in Chicago in 2012 and wins in Boston and Chicago this year. Kiplagat has 55 points and sits in second place at the leader board. Priscah Jeptoo (no relation to Rita) follows in third place with 50 points.

The excitement of the World Marathon Majors series comes from the several likely scenarios that could see any of the three women walk away with the big prize in New York on Sunday.

Priscah must win the race to get a share of the million-dollar prize. For Edna Kiplagat to win the WMM series, she must finish first or second and beat Priscah. If Priscah finishes second, and Edna finishes third, then three athletes would be tied for 65 points and since the head-to-head tiebreaker would not apply, Rita would win the WMM series.

For the last two years, Kiplagat has prepared with the WMM series in mind. This has meant training for three marathons in a year, one more than the two that is considered optimal for elite athletes.

In 2012 Super Storm Sandy devastated New York and led to the cancellation of the marathon.

After coming in second in the WMM series in 2011 and 2012 Kiplagat has a real chance of walking away with half-a-million dollars this year. She knows the course well, having won the New York Marathon in 2010 by pulling away in the last mile of the marathon with what has become her signature racing style: a patient first half, tucking in to the back of the leading pack and staying out of trouble until she surges in the last miles.

This strategy has made her one of the most consistent elite marathon runners with nine career raced under her belt.

The final hilly miles in Central Park will play to her strengths. Though the WMM series will be a big motivating factor, this will be Kiplagat’s third marathon of the year.

Jeptoo will be racing on much fresher legs, having passed up the chance to run this August at the Moscow World Championships. Priscah is also coming off a spectacular, confidence-boosting performance at the Great North run where she beat Olympic Champions Meseret Defar and Tirunesh Dibaba clocking 65:45 – the third fastest time ever in the half-marathon.

Priscah has really come into her own since she went into the 2012 London Olympics as the third-seeded Kenyan woman in the marathon team and emerged with the sole medal from the event. She went on to win the London Marathon in April, and with her current form and fresh legs, it would seem she has a slight advantage on Kiplagat.

The two Kenyans will face a strong challenge from Firehiwot Dado and Bezunesh Deba of Ethiopia, who were first and second in the last edition of the New York Marathon that was held in 2011. Italy’s Valeria Straneo, silver medallist at the Moscow World Championships held in August will also be present.

Since the New York has no pacemakers, it will be interesting to see how she approaches the race. New Zealand’s Kim Smith, Jelena Prokopchuka of Latvia, New York Marathon Champion in 2005 and 2006 are also running.

HUGE PROGRESS

The last three years have seen huge progress amongst Kenyan female marathon runners. As recently as 2004 when Catherine Ndereba, Margaret Okayo and Alice Chelagat were selected for the Athens Olympics, the federation had trouble picking a strong reserve team.

Fast forward to the 2011 World Championships in Daegu and Kenyan women swept the marathon without two of the top three Kenyan female marathon runners in the team. The place of women in society had also evolved enough that their husbands had forgone traditional role of putting themselves front and centre.

There was also a huge economic motivator: competition in men’s running was incredibly stiff, while women’s running had a lot more give – yet both areas paid equally. So some male athletes have opted to support their wives’ running.

Many athletics couples now train together: Examples would include Edna Kiplagat and Gilbert Koech and Mary Keitany and Paul Koech.
Keitany won Kenya’s first women’s WMM last year. However, series, it is telling that four out of the top five places on the women’s leader board this year are occupied by Kenyans. For the first time in the history of the WMM series, the men’s share of the million-dollar purse will not go to a Kenyan.

Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot won the series in its first edition, followed by Martin Lel, the late, great Sammy Wanjiru for two successive years, then Emmanuel Mutai in 2011 and Geoffrey Mutai last year.

After Geoffrey Mutai’s stellar 2011 when he ran the fastest time ever over the marathon distance in Boston (2:03:02 – though the point-to-point course and elevation drop made it ineligible for a record), he proved that Boston was not a fluke despite strong tailwinds by running 2:05:06 on New York’s hilly course, lowering the course record by more than two and a half minutes.

Mutai returns to New York as defending champion and will face Ugandan Stephen Kiprotich, who, with his Olympic and World Championship Marathon wins, has shown he is a master at running warm-weather tactical marathons. Kiprotich has 50 points and sits at third position on the WMM leader board behind Ethiopia’s Tsegaye Kebede and Kenya’s Wilson Kipsang, who is not running on Sunday.

Many athletics commentators are predicting that Sunday’s race will be between Mutai, Kiprotich and Kebede. Mutai’s successes have come at big-city marathons and he has consistently run sub 2:06 times.

Kiprotich’s successes have come in summer championship marathons, which are slower and more tactical. His personal best is a slow 2:07:20. He was sixth in this year’s London Marathon, his last big city race, but he has shown a knack for defeating his more favoured opponents from Kenya and Ethiopia when it counts.

Kebede is a real danger to the Kenyans. He won this year’s London Marathon in April and was fourth in the Moscow World Championships in August. He also won the London Marathon in 2010 and the Chicago Marathon in 2012. He was the bronze medallist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2009 Berlin World Championships. He is a small runner with a ferocious tenacity that has seen him win races in the last kilometre of a marathon.

If weather conditions are favorable and Mutai’s course record attempt goes well, he is likely to win the race. Mutai is also coming off a 59:06 half-marathon win in Udine on September 22nd. The time is the fourth fastest in the world this year.

He also has fresh legs as Kiprotich and Kebede both ran in London and at the World Championships in August, making this their third marathon of the year. Kiprotich and Kebede will be battling to be the first non-Kenyan man to win the WMM series. The scenarios here are even more complicated than the women’s race.

If Kebede finishes first or second and beats Kiprotich, he will take the WMM series. If Kiprotich wins and Kebede finishes third or lower, Kiprotich takes the series.

If Kiprotich wins and Kebede finishes second, Kiprotich will win on head-to-head. If Kiprotich finishes second and Kebede scores no points, Kiprotich will win on a tie break.

Other strong contenders in the race include Wesley Korir, who won the Boston Marathon last year. Korir was elected to Parliament in March and ran the 2013 Boston Marathon in April where he finished fifth. Paris Marathon Champion Stanley Biwott is also in the field.

Jackie Lebo is a writer and film producer at the Content House creativecollective@ContentHouseKE