‘Mheshimiwa! Twende!’ Stars cheered Wesley Korir

Kapsabet’s Tortoise Hotel was on Monday fully packed as more than 300 elite athletes gathered to watch the 2015 Boston Marathon at the launch of a World Marathon Majors ‘viewerthon’.

Heavy rains in Kapsabet marred the SuperSport signal of the live race transmission, just when the women’s race was headed to the finish with Kenya’s Caroline Rotich battling an Ethiopian onslaught from Maru Dibaba and Bezunesh Deba, throwing the athletes into a state on anxiety.

And when the signal came back on as the rains subsided, there was joy as the athletes realised Rotich had won, but the mood soon changed when Cherengany Member of Parliament Wesley Korir gave up the chase on the Ethiopia duo of winner Lelisa Desisa and Yemane Tsegay who took the first two podium places.

Mheshimiwa! Mheshimiwa! Twende! the athletes chanted in vain as Korir, a former Boston champion, slowly faded away as the Ethiopian pair surged ahead.

The athletes at the ‘viewerthon’ included 2008 Olympic 800 metres gold medallist Wilfred Bungei, Amos Korir, the defending Pune Marathon champion, 2011 Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon champion Ernest Kebenei and Benjamin Bitok, the Stokholm Marathon champion.

LONDON MARATHON VIEWING

Others were Stanley Koech the San Silvestre and Sao Paulo marathon title holder, 2015 Tel Aviv Marathon champion William Yegon, 2015 Kosice Marathon winner Patrick Korir and Abraham Tarbei, a gold medallist at the 2012 London Paralympics.

“That was a tough race and with the leaders changing in the men’s competition, we were extremely worried and we are sad that we didn’t get the men’s title,” Bungei, the 2008 Olympic 800 metres champion, said.

The ‘viewerthon’ is an initiative of Bank of Africa.

The top athletes will gather again this Sunday at the Keellu Resort in Kapsabet for the viewing of the London Marathon.