Kenyan Limo, Ethiopian Dire Tune emerge TCS World 10K champs in Bangalore/India – By Ram. Murali Krishnan

Kenyan Philemon Limo ran a brave race to upset the applecart of hismore fancied countrymen Titus Mbishei, the defending champion and former world record holder Micah Kogo, to win the men’s overall tile in the TCS World10K Bangalore, 2011, the world’s premier 10K run andIAAF Gold Label event, which concluded at the Kanteerava Stadium in Bangalore on Sunday.

Limo finished in 28:01, seven seconds off last year’s timing and ten seconds off the course record of 27.51, while Leonard Langat clocked 28.09 for second place and Ethiopian Lilesa took third place with 28.13.

The women’s title was a close affair and an Ethiopian clean sweep, and it required a photo finish to distinguish between the top twofinishers. A bunch of eight athletes entered the stadium together before Dune shifted into top gear with 200 metres to go and pip countrymate Merima Mohammed at the finish. Both Tune and Merima were credited with the same timing of 33.19, while Beliaynesh Ojira finished third in 33.20 to complete the Ethiopian sweep.

National Games champion Suresh Kumar emerged first among the Indians
and 20th overall, clocking 30.17, much slower than his personal best
of 28.59, while the fastest among the Indians was multiple Asian Games
and Commonwealth Games medalist Kavita Raut in a slow timing of 35.09.
Raut’s timing was way outside of her personal best of 31.51, which
placed her 16th overall. Both Suresh and Kavita took home Rs 2 lakh
for their efforts.

It was champion Mbishei along with countrymen Vincent Kipruto, Emmanuel Kipkemei, Peter Nawowuna and Philemon Limo who took the early lead, passing 2k mark in 5:29. The weather was relatively cool compared to the previous editions of the race but the humidity was on the rise as the athletes proceeded further. Limo, who had two identical 27:35 finishes in Rennes and Marseille in 2010 and this year respectively, did the front running after a kilometer with Nawowuna and Leonard Langat, this year’s RAK half-marathon third place finisher, hanging on to his shoulder.

The leaders passed the 3k mark in 8:16 and were struggling to maintain
the course record pace and the 4km mark it was Limo who broke from the
rest and surged ahead.

Limo, the seventh place finisher in this year’s World Cross-country Championship at Punta Umbria, never looked back and all the efforts by Langat to reduce the 10 metre gap were in vain as Limo kept pushing the pedal. As the runners entered Cubbon Park for the last stages ofthe race, Ethiopian Lelisa Desisa pushed forward and joined Langat tocharge Limo.

Langat and Desisa, who is credited with a personal best 27:48 while finishing third in the annual Peachtree Race at Atlanta last year, made a desperate effort to catch-up with the leader but the Kenyan had enough juice in his legs to increase the pace on the return journey at Kasturba Road and comfortably entered the stadium first in 27:36 and finish the remainder of the lap to emerge a comfortablewinner.

Defending champion Mbishei and former world record-holder Micah Kogo,
who posted a world leading time of 27:15 this April, finished 14th
(29:33) and 16 (29:46) respectively. “I was tired as the humidity was
high,” was the reaction from Kogo, while Mbishei, who had come well
prepared and confident of defending his title, was at a loss for wards
to explain what went wrong on the appointed day.

A truly world class line-up in the women’s elite race was assured toprovide a keen contest right from the beginning. The field included current world leader Doris Changeywo of Kenya, credited with a fast time of 31:26 she clocked just six weeks ago, along with last year’s runner-up and 2009 winner Aselefech Mergia of Kenya.

A big bunch of 20 athletes ran together in the initial stages of the race before it was reduced to a dozen runners with the race half-way through. Ethiopian Dire Tune did the front running and passed the 5Kat 17:19 carrying along with her teammates Belaynesh Oljira, Ababel Birhane and Tshehay Getio.

There was a brief change in the leading group as Kenyan Edna Kiplagat, one of the pre-race favourites, with her colleague Fyles Ongori made an attempt to take control of the situation from Tune, but the
Ethiopian was in no mood to give up and continued to run strongly up front. Koren Yal, the reigning Mumbai Marathon winner, joined Tune and countrymates Oljira and Merima Mohammed at the 8K mark andeight women entered the stadium together with Merima and Oljira running for a strong finish.

Tune produced her final ‘kick’ with just 200m to goand Merima, who already had two second place wins at the Procam promoted Delhi half-marathon (2010) and Mumbai Marathon (2011), made a frantic effort to keep her at bay, but an experienced Tune stayed her track to win the race and pocket the USD 21,000 first prize.

Koren Yal further emphasized the Ethiopian dominance by finishing
fourth (33.21), while Kenyan Philes Ongori came in fifth (33.22).
Fancied names Changeywo (33:26) and Mergia (33:27) had to be content
with sixth and seventh places respectively.

Results:

Overall Elite Men:
Philomen Limo (KEN) 00:28:01; Leonard Langat (KEN) 00:28:09; LilesaDesisa (ETH) 00:28:09; Emmanuel Kikemei (KEN) 00:28:20; Vincent Kipruto (KEN) 00:28:45; Aschealew Meketa (ETH) 00:28:47; Nicholas Kamakya (KEN) 00:28:54; Sentaheyu Merga (ETH) 00:29:04; Habtamu Fikadu (ETH) 00:29:05.

Overall Elite women:
Dire Tune (ETH) 00:33:19; Merima Mohammed (ETH) 00:33:19; Beliaynesh Oljira (ETH) 00:33:20; Koren Yal (ETH) 00:33:21; Philes Ongori (KEN) 00:33:22; Doris Changeywo (KEN) 00:33:26; Aselefech Mergia (ETH)
00:33:27; Edna Kiplagat (KEN) 00:33:35; Hilda Kibet (NED) 00:33:40; Mare Dibaba (ETH) 00:33:43.

Indian Men:
Suresh Kumar :00:30:17; Dangi V.L. : 00:30:25; Kheta Ram :00:30:34;
Indrajeet Patel:00:30:38; Sandeep Kumar: 00:30:53; Sanjit
Luwang:00:30:56; Raspal Singh:00:30:58; Mukesh Rawat:00:31:11; Pritam
Bind:00:31:26; Santosh:00:31:33.

Indian Women:
Kavita Raut:00:35:09; Sudha Singh:00:35:28; Priyanka Singh Patel:00:37:04; Lalita Babbar:00:37:19; Kiran Tiwari:00:37:27; Swati Gawade : 00:37:41; Anuradha Singh:00:37:49; Jhumma Khaton:00:38:15; Savita Devi:00:38:36; Vijay Mala Patil:00:38:46.

Open 10K Men:
(Between 15-39 yrs): Ankit Roy (IND) 00:34:00; Dharmaraju B (IND) 00:34:15; Rajendra Kumar Bind (IND) 00:34:31.

Open 10K: Men (Between 40-49 yrs)
Girish Chandra (IND) 00:38:08; Damian Miler (USA) 00:38:09; Suresh Chand (IND) 00:39:51.

Open 10K: Men(Between 50-59 yrs)
Kothandapani K C (IND) 00:44:00; Siddesha H (IND) 00:45:25; Bhaskar Sharma (IND) 00:45:57.

Open 10K: Men(Between 60-69 yrs)
Manjunatha Kota (IND) 00.47.42; Guenter Kleinknecht (GER) 00:48:57; G Chandran (IND) 00:50:02.

Open 10K Women:
(Between 15-39 yrs): Raj Kumari (IND) 00:41:46; Anish Devi (IND) 00:42:25; Rachel Carter (AUS) 00:45:03.

Open 10K: Women(Between 40-49 yrs): Sandra Holmes (GBR) 00:54:36;Jacqueline Hyde (GBR) 00:55:23; Anjali Chalisgaonkar (IND) 00:55:56.

Open 10K: Women(Between 50-59 yrs): Saroja Dileepan (IND) 01:06:45; Shamala Manmohan (IND) 01:08:51; Juju Grieve (GBR) 01:09:44.

Open 10K: Women(Between 60-69 yrs): Malini Kini (IND) 01:27:57; Shreelatha Banger (IND) 01:57:41.

Kingfisher Green Crusader Winner: Ajmal P.M. (Plant a Bonsai).

Kingfisher Sakkath Bangalorean Winners:
Rituparna Masi (Don’t Kill the Child)
Anand Raj-Beat Raja (Black Money)

Kingfisher Bombaat Brigade:
Diya Foundation (Save the World).

By Ram.  Murali Krishnan