15 MARCH 2009: SEOUL INTERNATIONAL MARATHON, KOREA

Moses Arusei and Roba Tola took advantage of cool (3°C) conditions to win in 2:07:54 and 2:25:37 respectively writes Mirko Jalava.

A group of 15 men passed through 10km in 30:04, but then slowed so that 11 remained in contention at 20km, passed in 1:00:46. There were still seven runners together at 30km when Arusei made his move. Only Ethiopia's Yirdaw Dejene tried to follow his pace, but at 35km he was 15 seconds down with third-placed Sylvester Teimet 49 seconds back. With the race decided Arusei continued to forge ahead, posting the second fastest time of his career to the 2:06:50 he ran in Paris in 2008.

It was only his second sub-2:10 time. Dejene, in second, slashed 3:21 from his personal best. Former winner Jason Mbote came in fourth, behind Teimet. Four-time Olympic marathon runner Bong-Ju Lee finished 14th in 2:16:46.

In the women's race the Chinese favourites were well beaten, ending their four-year winning streak. The 22-year-old Ethiopian Robe Tola came close to her 2:24:35 personal best set when winning the 2006 Hamburg marathon and far outclassed her opponents. Yanan Wei and Yingying Zhang passed through 15km alongside her in 50:52, but the 19-year-old star Zhang was then dropped. Robe and Wei passed 20km in 68:14 with Zhang in a chasing group with two Koreans, Sun-Young Lee and Ho-Sun Park, 80 seconds behind.

The leading duo reached 25km in 1:25:46, two minutes ahead, and Tola then quickly dropped Wei to lead through 35km (2:00:45) by more than a minute. Lee moved past Wei into second place, and finished with a 2:27:48 personal best, more than two minutes faster than the 2:29:58 which she ran in November. Ho-Sun Park, in fourth, cut almost nine minutes off her best time.

MEN:
1  Moses ARUSEI                       KEN  2:07:54
2  Yirdaw DEJENE                  ETH  2:08:30
3  Sylvester TEIMET              KEN  2:10:11
4  Jason MBOTE                   KEN  2:10:38
5  Young-Jun JI                   KOR  2:10:41
6  Paul BIWOTT                   KEN  2:11:03
7  Charles KIBIWOTT           KEN  2:11:18
8  Jun-Hyuen HWANG            KOR  2:11:39
9  Myoung-Kee LEE                KOR  2:13:55
10 Gun-Tae YUK                   KOR  2:14:58

WOMEN:
1  Roba TOLA                               ETH  2:25:37
2  Sun-Young LEE                  KOR  2:27:48
3  Yanan WEI                       CHN  2:29:00
4  Ho-Sun PARK                    KOR  2:32:21
5  Yingying ZHANG                 CHN  2:33:38
6  Yun-Hee CHUNG                 KOR  2:34:14
7  Shujing ZHANG                  CHN  2:38:48
8  Jung-Hee HA                    KOR  2:48:53
9  Son-Jung KIM                   KOR  2:53:41

Source: AIMS.org