MARATONA DELLA CITTA DI ROMA, ITALY – KUALA LUMPUR INT’L MARATHON, MALAYSIA – KUALA LUMPUR INT’L MARATHON, MALAYSIA – SEOUL INT’L MARATHON, KOREA – AIMS-Results from the weekend

Souad Ait Salem from Algeria won the women’s race at the 13th edition of the Rome Marathon to improve the women’s course record by 36 seconds writes Diego Sampaolo. On a warm day, Elias Kemboi improved his personal best by more than five minutes to take the men’s title.

Ait Salem’s earlier form in the Roma-Ostia Half Marathon (1:10:29) was confirmed as she bettered her marathon best by more than three minutes. Pre-race favourite and mother-of-four Hellen Kimutai finished 500m behind her, ahead of Slovenian veteran Helena Javornik and Kenyan Lenah Cheruiyot. All four broke 2:30.

Cheruiyot’s four-minute improvement in her personal best could have been even greater if she had not contested the race so strongly in the first half. The lead four passed 10km in 34:04 and halfway in 1:12:42. Javornik dropped back after 25km and just before 30km Ait-Salem changed gear, pulling away from Cheruiyot and Kimutai.

Ait Salem, just one week before her wedding, recorded the second fastest ever women’s time run in Italy. Ivana Iozzia, who was the first Italian in eighth place, clinched her second national title and also improved her personal best by 14 seconds.

The men’s race started according to plan at a pace of 3:03/km, with pacemakers Richard Limo and Henry Kapkiai passing the halfway mark in 1:04:11. At 26km they led a big group which included Tesfaye Tola, South African Norman Dlomo, Samson Kosgei, Albert Matebor, Kemboi, Jose Manuel Martinez and Italian Migidio Bourifa. Course record holder and 2005 champion Alberico Di Cecco was forced to drop out with an injury at 28km.

After pacing finished at 30km Martinez took the lead briefly, closely followed by Kemboi, Bourifa, Tola, Kosgei and Matebor. Kemboi launched his attack at 36km, pulling clear of Martinez and leading by 15 seconds as they passed the 40km point. A delighted Migidio Bourifa finished fourth to take the Italian National title. Martinez was also delighted with his second place, an important test in his build-up to this summer’s World Championships marathon in Osaka.

Samson Kosgei was striding out at the front of the race with only a few kilometres to run, but eventual winner Chelimo Kemboi was in hot pursuit, and caught him at 38km. In the women’s race Souad Ait Salem proved to strong over the second half for pre-race favourite Hellen Kimutai.

After passing through halfway in 1:04:20 and being towed to 30km by competent pacemaking, Samson Kosgei struck out on his own. The group stayed together in pursuit but soon Kemboi took it up alone.
Others followed at a distance and only began to separate at 40km, when Kemboi was well away. Jose Manuel Martinez chased hardest, but could not reduce the gap. Migidio Bourifa was delighted with his fourth place, but the top Italian woman, Ivana Iozzia in eighth, received little acclaim even though she improved her personal best by a small margin.

MEN:
1 Chelimo KEMBOI KEN 2:09:36
2 Jose Manuel MARTINEZ ESP 2:10:12
3 Jonathan KOSGEI KEN 2:10:25
4 Migidio BOURIFA ITA 2:10:30
5 Albert MATEBO KEN 2:10:42
6 Tesfaye TOLA ETH 2:10:45
7 Norman DLOMO RSA 2:11:47
8 Samson KOSGEI KEN 2:12:39
9 Elijah SANG KEN 2:12:48
10 Dennis CURZI ITA 2:13:40

WOMEN:
1 Saoud AIT-SALEM ALG 2:25:08
2 Hellen KIMUTAI KEN 2:26:46
3 Helena JAVORNIK SLO 2:28:53
4 Lenah CHERUIYOT KEN 2:29:43
5 Natalia VOLGINA RUS 2:30:31
6 Xia Yang FENG CHN 2:34:45
7 Tigist ABIDI ETH 2:35:01
8 Ivana IOZZIA ITA 2:35:26
9 Marizete MOREIRA BRA 2:39:08
10 Woynishet TAFA ETH 2:43:11

18 MARCH 2006: KUALA LUMPUR INT’L MARATHON, MALAYSIA

MEN:
1 Cyprian KIOGARA KEN 2:17:38
2 Lewis A ONDATI KEN 2:17:57
3 William K KOECH KEN 2:19:21
4 Kipsgei J MARITIM KEN 2:20:53
5 Joel K KEMBOI KEN 2:22:19
6 Daniel K KORINGO KEN 2:22:59
7 Davidson K SEWER KEN 2:27:10
8 Christopher C RONO KEN 2:29:05
9 Elkana K RUTO KEN 2:29:08
10 Takhir MAMASHAEV KAZ 2:29:54

WOMEN:
1 Winfridah K NYASIKERA KEN 2:48:09
2 Wang SHIDAN CHN 2:52:59
3 Sunisa SAILOMYEN THA 2:55:14
4 Boadi MILLICENT GHA 2:57:23
5 Apassara P PHIMAI THA 3:12:21
6 Song FEI CHN 3:26:02
7 Emilia B JAMIL MAS 3:28:42
8 Roslizawati B RASIDI MAS 3:43:01
9 Uraiwan DONCHADA THA 3:45:19
10 Tan LI LIAN MAS 3:45:41

HALF MARATHON
MEN:
1 Geoffrey K BIRGEN KEN 1:10:02
2 Daniel K CHEBII KEN 1:10:57
3 Charles O OMAYIO KEN 1:11:35

WOMEN:
1 Trudy FAWCETT GBR 1:27:40
2 Yuan Y FANG MAS 1:28:55
3 Radka VODICKOVA CZE 1:29:26

18 MARCH 2007: EDP HALF MARATHON OF LISBON, PORTUGAL

Lisbon hosted 36,000 participants at events in and surrounding the EDP Lisbon Half Marathon writes Antonio Manuel Fernandes. Rita Jeptoo set a world leading time in the women’s race, while Robert Kipchumba’s 60:31 was the first winning time in four years to be more than the hour.

Kipchumba, who ran the entire race at the front of the leading pack, passed 5km in 14:02 leading a group of 12. At 10km he led seven others through in 28:54, and at 15km he passed by in 43:19 with six others behind him. He only took the definitive lead in the last 400m, to drop Robert Cheruiyot—who finished in the top three for the fifth successive year, but has yet to win. Double World Marathon champion, Jaouad Gharib of Morocco just pipped 2006 New York winner Marilson dos Santos for third. First Portuguese home was Luis Jesus (12th in 1:03:36).

„I didn’t expect to win but the heat was my severest opponent.“ said Kipchumba.

The day’s highlight was Rita Jeptoo’s world-leading 67:05, which is the fourth fastest time recorded in Lisbon, and a personal best by almost two minutes. The 26-year-old set a strong pace, and raced alone after the first 10km. Former winners, Susan Chepkemei (best time ever of 65:44 in Lisbon) and Salina Kosgei, just couldn’t keep up. The Portuguese runner Ana Dias, came in fourth, very close to her personal best.

„This was great preparation for me to defend my Boston Marathon title“, said Jeptoo.

MEN:
1 Robert KIPCHUMBA KEN 1:00:31
2 Robert K CHERUIYOT KEN 1:00:36
3 Jaouad GHARIB MOR 1:00:41
4 Marilson DOS SANTOS BRA 1:00:42
5 Emmanuel MUTAL KEN 1:00:49
6 Festus LANGAT KEN 1:01:01
7 Paul KOSGEI KEN 1:01:24
8 Philip MANYIM KEN 1:01:28
9 Charles NGOLEPUS KEN 1:02:34
10 Sammy TUM KEN 1:02:40

WOMEN:
1 Rita JEPTOO KEN 1:07:05
2 Susan CHEPKEMEI KEN 1:08:33
3 Salina KOSGEI KEN 1:09:47
4 Ana DIAS POR 1:10:40
5 Merima DENBOBA ETH 1:11:11
6 Sharon CHEROP KEN 1:11:24
7 Claudia PEREIRA POR 1:13:52
8 Marisa BARROS POR 1:13:59
9 Florence CHEPKURUI KEN 1:14:29
10 Emily KIMURIA KEN 1:14:36

18 MARCH 2007: SEOUL INT’L MARATHON, KOREA

China’s Wei Yanan and a most unexpected comeback from Bong-Ju Lee took the Dong-A Marathon Seoul International Marathon titles in world leading times write Ram Murali Krishnan and Mirko Jalava.

Over 23,000 runners took part on a course which runs along Sungryemun onto Cheonggyecheon, then through the Seoul Forest and into Jamsil Olympic Stadium.

Lee, former double Asian Games champion (1998 and 2002) who took the 1996 Olympic silver medal, won the Dong-A Marathon before in 1995 and was second in 1996. The national record holder (2:07:21 in Tokyo Marathon 2000), Lee also won the 2001 Boston marathon but his second Asian Games victory in 2002 was his last marathon win of any sort, and he had not been below 2:10 since running 2:08:15 in Seoul in 2004.

Wei Yanan of China won the women’s race in a solo effort ahead of the distant pursuit of Kenya’s Rose Cheruiyot and Hellen Cherono. Second in this race in 2005 (2:25:55) Yanan also won in 2002 (2:25:06) but later that year was suspended for two years after returning a positive doping test after winning the Beijing maratho

MEN
1 Lee BONG-JU KOR 2:08:04
2 Paul KIPTANUI KEN 2:08:29
3 Laban KIPKEMBOI KEN 2:08:38
4 Edwin KOMEN KEN 2:08:45
5 Jason MBOTE KEN 2:10:32
6 Dmytro BARANOVSKI UKR 2:10:51

WOMEN
1 Wei YANAN CHN 2:23:12
2 Rose CHERUIYOT KEN 2:27:25
3 Hellen CHERONO KEN 2:29:33
4 Thabita TSATSA ZIM 2:30:12
5 Worknesh TOLA ETH 2:30:56
6 Chae EUN-HEE KOR 2:32:01

Source
www.aims-association.org