Posted: October 1, 2005

Athletics: Tomescu Dita Wins World Half Women's Race

From David Monti

© 2005 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

EDMONTON (01-Oct) -- Just 24 minutes into the women's IAAF World Half-Marathon Championships, Constanina Tomescu-Dita from Romania surged hard and started a long, lonely and ultimately successful bid for victory. The bronze medalist at last year's edition of this race in New Delhi, India, cruised through the cold and rain to hit 10 km in 32:07, 18 seconds up on Lornah Kiplagat of the Netherlands and Susan Chepkemei Kenya.

Despite the fact that she will run the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon next Sunday, Tomescu-Dita forged ahead, widening her lead to 21 seconds in the 12th kilometer. Although she slowed down considerably, she fattened her lead to 43 seconds by the time she passed the grandstand in the 16th kilometer. Kiplagat and Chepkemei remained together, but just couldn't seem to spur each other on. Time was quickly running out for them.

Like prisoners on a chaingang, Kiplagat and Chepkemei continued to labor side by side. Chepkemei had won the silver medal at these championships three times before (2000, 2001 and 2002) and although finishing second for a fourth time would disappoint her, finishing third would surely be worse.

Up ahead, Tomescu-Dita continued to lead in the 20th kilometer as the wind began to whip up, making the 5C temperatures feel even colder. She did not falter, entering William Hawrelak Park alone to win going away in 1:09:17 (unofficial).

But the battle for silver was just heating up. Chepkemei led Kiplagat by a stride heading into the park, but Kiplagat broke free in the finish straight to take second in 1:10:19 (unofficial) to Chepkemei's 1:10:20 (unofficial).