Chris Musumba And IAAF
28 October 2008
Nairobi — Getting a travel visa was a problem, he was forced to pay for his own air ticket to Germany owing to his obscurity yet Robert Cheruiyot (not the four time Boston marathon champion) had the final laugh as he reaped more than any runner can dream of on his first trip out of the country.
He not only won the 27the edition of the Frankfurt Marathon, but also broke the course record and returned home KSh5million (50,000 euros) richer.
It is a typical story of the talent that Kenya has in long distance races. When his name came up, all thought it was Boston marathon champion Robert 'Mwafrika' Cheruiyot. They were wrong.
For a first time traveller to Europe, Cheruiyot must have encountered too many problems in securing his travel documents.
Not even the elite race coordinator Christoph Kopp could put his money on him to win miles away from home. In fact he declined to pay his air ticket upfront.
But Cheruiyot surprised Kopp. Being such a late entry to this 27th edition of Germany's oldest city Marathon, was forced to buy his own air ticket, which Kopp promising to reimburse him, if he broke 2:14 time.
Cheruiyot got his airfare back and a lot more for taking over half a minute off the course record of 2:07:58.
His only known performance in a road race is a 20th place finish in the Eldoret half-marathon where he ran over 64 minutes.
Yet he was already prominent in the lead group of mostly Kenyans who went through the 21km mark in 63:45.
The field gradually whittled down until there were only two other colleagues with him, Wilson Kigen and Stephen Kiagora.
Cheruiyot eased away just after 35km mark and had almost a minute lead when he crossed the line. Kigen was second in 2:08:16, and Kiagora, who fell on the final turn, and had to settle for third in 2:08:24.
"We are not related," said the winner in reference to the other Cheruiyot who is the World Marathon Majors champion. "When the field began to break up, I thought that I might be third, but I'm very happy to win."
According to his manager, Jos Hermens, Cheruiyot was persuaded to make a late bid to enter the race on the advice of a training partner, William Kiplagat, himself finishing tenth.
Sabrina Mockenhaupt won the women race clocking 2:26:22, Olesya Nurgalieva of Russia was second in 2:27:37 while Melanie Kraus was third in 2:28:20.
Irene Limika was fourth in 2:28:31 while another Kenyan, Leah Malot 2:32:02 settling for sixth.
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