Best is yet to come, says marathon champ Kirui

IN LONDON

Geoffrey Kirui, the new world marathon champion, was only running his fourth marathon on Sunday, but has achieved a lot more that seasoned runners over the distance.

Kirui, the 2011 Africa junior 10,000 metres champion and bronze medallist over the distance at the 2012 World Junior Championships in Barcelona, has had a brilliant season with victory in April’s Boston Marathon which, coupled with Sunday’s win here, hoists him to the top of the World Marathon Majors series.

Kirui won Sunday’s race, that started and concluded on Tower Bridge, in two hours, eight minutes and 27 seconds with Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola (2:09:49) second and Tanzania’s Alphonce Simbu (2:09:51) settling for bronze.

Kirui became the first man in history to win the Boston and World Championships marathon on the same year and told Nation Sport he was well prepared for the battle physically and mentally.

“I knew the competition would be very stiff and having done good preparations with my compatriots well in Kenya, I knew something good was coming and I’m happy to have won gold for Kenya,” said Kirui.

He dedicated the medal to Kenyans ahead of Tuesday’s General Election, appealing that they should vote peacefully.

“Kenyans will be voting on Tuesday and I want to dedicate this gold to them and send a peace message that they should vote peacefully. “We have done our part as sportsmen and women of this country, winning the gold here, and they should also use our example during the voting exercise because sports unite us all,” said the athlete.

He said Team Kenya wanted the win so badly to reclaim the title that for the last two editions has fallen to fellow Africans (Eritrea through Ghirmay Ghebreselassie in 2015 and Uganda’s Stephen Kiprotich in 2013).

“The title had been snatched from us two times and I wanted to make sure it is coming back home and that is why I gave my best though Tola was really on my back,” he said after the race.

Kirui ran a tactical race ahead of Tola and at the 21km mark, they were only two athletes at the front up to the 35km mark. At one point, Tola outpaced Kirui who seemed not to give up and he was back taking advantage of the tired Dubai Marathon champion in what Kirui said that he was playing games with him.

“I knew the Ethiopian was going to get worn out in the 38km mark and I decided to slow down. It worked out for me and when I saw him slowing down, I knew that was the perfect time to increase my pace,” said Kirui.

Kirui led the race in a split of 1:05:28 at the half mark, 1:16:43 at 25km mark and 1:46:11 at 35km mark. The athlete who normally trains in Keringet, Nakuru County, is under the Global Sports Communication management stable along with Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge and world silver medallist in 10,000m here Joshua Cheptegei. He has a personal best of 26:55.73 in the 10,000m and 13:16.68 in the 5,000m.

In 2016, he was third in the Rotterdam Marathon and seventh in the Amsterdam Marathon.

London Marathon champion Daniel Wanjiru said that he was in great form but his body could not react and he told his compatriots to go ahead.

“My body could not react after 15km and I told my compatriots to go ahead and increase the pace,” said Wanjiru.

Gideon Kipketer was fifth after clocking 2:10:56 while Wanjiru was eighth in 2:12:16. Kipketer said that he picked an injury which made him slow down but he is happy with what he posted.

“The race was good and even the weather conditions allowed us to run well. I picked a hamstring injury which made me slow down but I’m happy I finished the race,” said Kipketer.

Kenya has won four gold medals before in the men’s marathon since the inception of the World Championships through Douglas Wakihuri (1987) in Rome, Luke Kibet (2007) Osaka and Abel Kirui (2009 and 2011) in Daegu and Moscow.

Abel Kirui has a championship record of 2:06:54 which he clocked during the Berlin games in 2009. The current world record holder in marathon, with a time of 2:02:57, is Dennis Kimetto, a time which he clocked at the Berlin Marathon in 2014.