Champion Chebet smashes Amsterdam Marathon record

AMSTERDAM

Patience in marathon running is a very strong virtue and it paid off for one of the most virtuous of distance runners, Kenya’s Wilson Chebet, on the streets of Amsterdam on Sunday.

Running in his third TCS Amsterdam Marathon, Chebet, out of the blues, unleashed a course record under very difficult, cold and windy conditions that had seen race pundits rule out the possibility of a time faster than the two hours, five minutes and 44 seconds set by Ethiopian Getu Feleke here in 2010.

Indeed, even the 27-year-old Marakwet-born Chebet himself and his manager, Zane Branson, seemed resigned to the fact that it would be impossible to overhaul the Ethiopian’s course record, and their fears appeared justified at the 20km mark where the wind seemed to blow towards a 2:05.54 winning time.

And, again, after 25km, which Chebet – paced by Nicholas Kipkemboi and Gideon Kipketer - crossed in 1:14.40, Feleke’s mark appeared intact with the projected winning time dropping to 2:06.05.

But at 35 kilometres when the final pacemaker Kipkemboi dropped out and left Chebet with four Ethiopians, Bentayehu Assefa, Abrha Gebretsadik, Feyisa Bekele and Abraham Girma, things took a dramatic turn.

Chebet shifted gears, shaking off the Ethiopian quartet and setting himself up for a final race against the clock, and wind.

“At 38 kilometres, I had already ruled out a course record and I was aiming for a 2:06, but suddenly things changed and my body felt good so I added the pace,” said Chebet, who last year fell just nine seconds shy of the course record.

Run to the finish

With a personal best 2:05.27 run at last year’s Rotterdam Marathon, Chebet simply exploded away from the Ethiopians and when he entered the stadium and faced a 200-metre tartan run to the finish, all eyes in the monumental 1928 Amsterdam Olympic Stadium - that has hosted legends, including Hungarian soccer star Ferenc Puskas - were on the clock.

The cheers from the crowd saw Chebet unleash whatever he had in his reserves to finish in 2:05.41, just three seconds better than the course record!

Assefa was second in 2:06.22 and Gebretsadik third in 2:06.23 with one of Kenya’s early pacesetters, Peter Kirui, coming in 10th in 2:09.15.

There was drama of equal measure in the women’s race where Ethiopia’s girl of the moment, Meseret Hailu, added the Amsterdam title to the World Half Marathon title she won in Kavarna, Bulgaria, three weeks ago.

She curved out a massive six minutes and as many seconds off her previous personal best to win here in a course record 2:21.09, with impressive Kenyan Eunice Kirwa (2:21.41) also dipping under the previous record of 2:22.08 set last year by Olympic champion Tiki Gelana.

Ethiopia’s Genet Getaneh (2:25.38) completed the podium places with Kenyan Diane Chepkemoi coming home fourth in 2:27.32.

Pre-race favourite and 2011 Boston Marathon champion, Caroline Kilel from Kericho, pulled out just after the halfway mark in a cautious move.

“I just didn’t feel good and decided to withdraw…I’m fine and I don’t have an injury. I will now just have to focus on regrouping for my next race,” said Kilel.