21 FEBRUARY 2010: MARATON POPULAR DE VALENCIA, SPAIN

A cool, windless morning punctuated with light showers of rain offered good conditions for fast running and David Njagi took full advantage, setting a course record and missing the Spanish all-comers record (2:09:33, set in San Sebastian in 2002) by only 12 seconds.

Behind him the next three finishers all broke the previous course record in this 30th edition of the race. They were helped by the efficiency of a trio of Moroccan pacemakers who drove the lead group through halfway in 2:10:30 pace, and by 31km had set the entire group of invited elite athletes up for a drive to the finish in which all seven of them managed to better their previous best times.

Pre-race favourite Ben Kimwole improved by only 30 seconds, losing out to Njagi and Langat who both sliced two minutes off their personal best times. Behind them, there were even greater leaps forward, with Abraham Potongole and Tesfaye Sandiku in fourth and fifth places improving by four and five minutes respectively.

Gladys Chebet, in her debut Marathon, had no-one close to her for most of the race. She passed through halfway in 1:17:31 (2:35 pace) but had already started to slow slightly (from 2:32 at 14km). By 30km she was on 2:38 pace, with the veteran Moldovan Valentina Delion just less than five minutes behind. Although she would have been unaware of the closing gap Chebet's winning margin had been cut in half at the finish line.

MEN:
1  David NJAGI                           KEN  2:09:45
2  Joseph LANGAT                  KEN  2:10:24
3  Ben Kimutai KIMWOLE        KEN  2:10:30
4  Abraham POTONGOLE         KEN  2:11:12
5  Tesfaye SANDIKU                ETH  2:11:50
6  Berhanu GIRMA                  ETH  2:12:51
7  Fekadu LEMMA                   ETH  2:14:39
8  Miguel Plaza BENITA            ESP  2:26:54
9  Andres Navio MARTINEZ       ESP  2:27:15
10 Jose Sanchez DIUFAIN         ESP  2:28:09


WOMEN:
1  Gladys CHEBET                         KEN  2:42:06
2  Valentina DELION               KEN  2:44:40
3  Maxine MCKINNON              GBR  2:50:14
4  Maria Lopez MATA               ESP  3:00:03
5  Carmen Maria PEREZ           ESP  3:08:21
6  Alicia Leal SANTOS              ESP  3:10:06
7  Laura Alabau MARTI            ESP  3:13:28
8  Karen WALKER                   GBR  3:15:27
9  Merche Abalos ALVAREZ       ESP  3:17:31
10 Patricia Lopez VICEDO        ESP  3:19:12

Source: AIMSworldrunning.org