Desisa wins RAK Half Marathon as eight men break one hour mark

Simon Foster 19:21 14/02/2014
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  • RAK champion: Desisa edged a tight finish to triumph in Ras Al Khaimah.

    Ethiopia’s 2013 Boston Marathon champion Lelisa Desisa held off a spirited challenge from Eritrea’s Nguse Amlosom to claim victory in a historic men’s race at the eighth RAK Half Marathon on Friday.

    The unheralded Amlosom – whose previous personal best was 1:00.46 – looked strong with 3km to go as he and Desisa made a break from the leading bunch, that included Wilson Kiprop and Bernard Koech.

    However, it was not to be for the Eritrean as his Ethopian rival was able to maintain his pace better to claim the win, taking the tape in a time of 59 minutes and 36 seconds.

    Behind the front two, a further six runners came home within the hour mark – the first time that eight men have all broken 60 minutes in the same half marathon.

    In the women’s race, London Marathon winner Priscah Jeptoo triumphed in a time of 1:07.02. Jeptoo blew the field away, winning by over a minute and picking up in 2014 where she left off in New York last November.

    The men covered their first 5km in a pedestrian 14:31. The race livened up well before halfway, but despite the front-running efforts of Koech (fourth in 56:43), the chance for super-fast times had already been lost.

    After that initial reluctance to attack the distance, the pace quickened markedly, with Koech, Desisa and eventual third-placed Wilson Kiprop pushing the tempo, resulting in a 10km split of 28:30 after a 14:01 segment for the pack of 10.

    And when the leaders reached 15km in 42:38 (14:08), with only Jacob Kendagor and Ibrahim Jeilan tailing off, a sub-60 minute clocking looked on the cards yet again.

    That middle 10km had taken a meagre 28:09, but there was no letup as Koech, under the hour in his last four half marathons, continued to be the aggressor.

    Sadly for him though, he did little to dent the form of several rivals ahead of him, the main beneficiaries being eventual winner Desisa and Amlosom.

    That pair cut loose with 3km to go, and it was initially Amlosom who looked the better of the two. A kilometre later though, the marathon strength of Desisa enabled him to dig deeper and he won the critical gap of a few metres that he would eventually hold to the line.

    The pace from 15km to 20km (14:02) meant the 15k was covered in a vicious 42:11 (28:10 second 10k) with the final 1.1km taking Desisa just 2:56 minutes – or about 2:40 on the home stretch.

    But while the pair drew clear, there was little room for error; behind them the next six athletes battled on gamely and it was here that the results were special.

    Wilson Kiprop’s 59:45 garnered third but behind him Koech was fourth just one second down, Bernard Kipyego was another second back, Micah Kogo set a personal best of 59:49 in sixth, Feyisa Lilesa was seventh in 59:51 and Paul Lonyangata set a fastest-ever eighth place time of 59:54.

    Despite their similarly slow opening 5km, the women’s race was comfortably won by Jeptoo. Her acceleration over the 5km to 10k (32:41) meant a 15:27 split, with only Flomena Cheyech, Guteni Shone and Helah Kiprop able to stay within a few seconds of her notoriously flailing gait.

    What came next was really impressive: she covered the 5km segment between 10km and 15km in another 15:27, 30:54 for that middle 10km, and after that there was still little let-up. 

    She hit 20km in 63:45 (15:37) and it was that split that really did the damage. Her lead as she headed in to the final 1.1km and the long home straight had reached a yawning 62 seconds and the race was all but over.

    Even then this quietly spoken 29-year-old mother and businesswoman pushed hard, covering the final 1.1km in 3:17 to win by a massive 71 seconds.

    Without doubt she could have gone a minute or more faster, and while one will never know exactly what she could have run, to suggest that Mary Keitany’s three-year-old world record of 65:50 would have been under serious threat, is no exaggeration.

    Behind her, the next eight athletes broke the 70min mark, with Guteni Shone in third broaching new ground (68:31) while Mare Dibaba, who tops the world marathon rankings after her win in Xiamen on January 2 (2:21:36), looked less than fully recovered from her Chinese exertions with a 68:56 clocking for sixth.

    Ultimately, only Jeptoo came out of the women’s race with added credit, her main rivals well beaten with namesake Rita a subdued fifth in 1:08.49. In all 1,998 runners started the race and 1,968 crossed the finish line.

    Also, according to organisers, a total of 91 nationalities were represented at the event with the youngest entrant aged 15 and the oldest 67.

    Full results can be found at www.premiertiming.com

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