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Kenya: Golden Girl Lornah Breaks Record
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The Nation (Nairobi)
15 October 2007
Posted to the web 15 October 2007
Elias Makori
Udine
There was a double feeling of déjà vu here when Kenya-born Dutchwoman Lornah Kiplagat and Eritrean Zersenay Tadesse raced to victory at the Second IAAF World Road Running Championships run over a 21-kilometre distance as Kenya swept the men's and women's team titles.
First, the pair had won the season-opening International Association of Athletics Federations calendar event, the 35th World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa, with Kiplagat blasting into smithereens her Ethiopian rival Tirunesh Dibaba and Tadesse destroying the master of distance running, Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele, to win the blue riband men's 12-kilometre race.
Second, the two distance running sensations both won the First IAAF Road Running Championships in Debrecen, Hungary, last year. And it was as though the duo were again reading from the same script at this year's race run over three seven-kilometre loops around the city of Udine whose myriad of castles, towers and fortified palaces, concentrated primarily on the hilltops, made it possible to spot the arrival of the enemies in the years of war gone by.
Kiplagat, competing for the first time since picking up an early summer calf injury which kept her out of the World Athletics Championships in Osaka, broke the World Record for both, with an unbelievable display in this ancient north east Italian city.
Opened competition
The 33-year-old shattered by 24 seconds the 20km record of 1:03:21 to 1:02:57, which she achieved with her WRRC victory in Debrecen a year ago, then speeding through the last kilometre, claimed the gold medal over the Half Marathon distance in a time of 1:06:25. That sliced 19 seconds from the previous IAAF World record of 1:06:44 which South Africa's Elana Meyer set eight years ago with her victory in Tokyo, although the world's fastest-ever time stands to Paula Radcliffe who ran 1:05:40 on the slightly downhill BUPA Great Run course from Newcastle to South Shields in 2003.
Tadesse, on the other hand, did pick out his enemies early as the men's 21km race, that opened the day's competition, wore on.
The Eritrean, who has had a brilliant season that saw him win the 10,000m gold at the All Africa Games in Algiers and finish fourth at the World Championships over the same distance, cleared the first five kilometres in 13:55 in the leading pack that had Ethiopia's Deriba Merga and the Kenyan pair of Patrick Musyoki and Evans Cheruiyot.
Careful calculations
After 15kms, Tadesse was in the same pack with 41:34 on the clock. Going into the last seven-kilometre loop, it was obvious that the four frontrunners were not headed for a world record that carried a $50,000 bonus but were carrying out careful calculations, waiting for the final sprint to the tape. With a groin strain affecting his kick, back in his mind Cheruiyot knew that he had a weakness but bravely kept Musyoki company with Tadesse looking over his shoulder constantly, just like he did with Bekele breathing down his neck in the Mombasa heat.
Getting into the final two kilometres, Tadesse made his move, blasting away from the pack with Musyoki hanging onto his coat-tails and eventually it was the Eritrean who was stronger, crossing the finish line in 58:59, what went down as a championship record.
Musyoki (59:02) took the silver and Cheruiyot (59:05) the bronze. The other Kenyans finished 15th (Robert Kichumba, 1:00.47), 45th (Francis Kibiwott, 1:03.22) and 51st (world record holder Samuel Wanjiru, 1:03.31). Wanjiru told the Daily Nation that he suffered a knee injury and would travel back to his Japan base for a medical assessment before deciding on whether or not to make his marathon debut as scheduled in Fukuoka in December.
"My knee gave in and I had to just jog to the finish. I will go for examination in Japan after which I will decide my future," the 20-year-old, running for the first time in Kenyan colours, said. "I'm happy to win my second world road running title," Tadesse said.
Musyoki was satisfied with his silver medal. "I'm happy with my second place finish. I put in a lot of effort in the second lap and I'm not disappointed at all with the result." Cheruiyot also had a fantastic final lap that pushed him to the bronze medal position in his second race in Udine.
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"I'd like to thank the organisers. It was a great race. It's the second time for me to run in Udine and the first time for me to represent the country.
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