Posted: October 31, 2004

Athletics: Kenyans All The Way in Frankfurt

Boaz Kimaiyo of Kenya led home four of his colleagues as he retained his EuroCity Marathon title in Frankfurt this morning, in a new course record of 2hr 09min 09sec.

Kimaiyo, 28, is still short of his elder brother, Eric’s family record of 2.07.41, set in Berlin half a dozen years ago, but Boaz was 19 seconds inside the record for the new course, that he had set in winning last year.

At halfway in 64min 29sec, it looked as if Kenyans were going to swamp the field, since they had the 17 leading men (including half a dozen pacemakers), but when Kimaiyo and Kibet drew away at 30k, Dmitri Baranovski of Ukraine and Sergey Lukin of Russia began to make inroads.

They finished sixth and tenth respectively, but that still left eight Kenyans in ten. Kimaiyo broke away from colleague Kibet at 33 kilometres, and ran out of the bright sunshine into the fanfare and fireworks of the red carpet finish inside Frankfurt’s FestHalle.

“I was hoping Kibet could run with me to about 35k,” said Kimaiyo, “and we might have gone faster, but he wasn’t so strong, and felt good, so I left him”.

Kibet was second in 2.11.27, with another colleague, Benjamin Rotich third in 2.11.44.

Popular favourite, Ondoro Osoro had a bad fall just before 20k, and hobbled home with a bloodied hip and arm in ninth place, in 2.15.11.

The women´s race was a double header for the Russian twins, Olesya and Elena Nurgalieva. The ultra-marathoners from the Urals bettered their 42k time by close to ten minutes, as Olesya won in 2.29.48, with Elena one second behind. Third place went to another Russian, Yulia Vinokurova, in 2.32.27. Elena has won both the Comrades and the Two-Oceans ultra races in South Africa in the last year, with Olesya second. Elena said, “It was Olesya’s turn to win today, and she was stronger anyway”.

RACE RESULTS
MEN
1        1          Boaz KIMAIYO            KEN          2.09.09          €10,000
2        17          Luke KIBET                 KEN          2.11.27      €  7,500
3        8          Ben ROTICH              KEN          2.11.44      €  5,000
4        9          John RONO                  KEN          2.12.59      €  3,000
5        21          Fred MOGAKA            KEN          2.14.28      €  2,500
6        5          Dmitri BARANOVSKI   UKR          2.15.01      €  2,000
7        36          Eric KIPTOON           KEN          2.15.03      €  1,500
8        97          Francis KIPROP              KEN          2.15.11      €  1,000
9        2          Ondoro OSORO           KEN          2.15.57
10      6          Sergey LUKIN              RUS          2.16.23
KIMAIYO earns time bonus of €15,000, plus record bonus of €5,000
Total for winner - €30,000
WOMEN
1        F4          Olesya NURGALIEVA  RUS          2.29.48          €10,000
2        F5          Elena NURGALIEVA  RUS          2.29.49      €  7,500
3        F3          Yulia VINOKUROVA RUS          2.32.27      €  5,000
4        F10          Gladys ASIBA             KEN          2.35.14      €  2,500
5                  Maija ORAVMAKI     FIN          2.39.35      €  2,000
6                  Maija HELLER           GER          2.54.58      €  1,500
7                  Marianne BRULISAUER GER 2.55.59
8                  Birgit BARTELS           SUI          2.57.26
9                  Christina BREDER          GER          2.58.25
10                Kaisa SALMINEN       FIN          2.58.37