Sunday, December 5, 2010

Kenyans top Standard Chartered Marathon

By Patwant Singh

The Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore was back on Sunday, with a record 60,000 runners taking to the streets this year.

Kenya dominated once again, winning both the men's and women's elite races.

In the men's race, Kenneth Mburu Mungara was the first to cross the line with a time of 2 hours 14 minutes 6 seconds.

Another Kenyan, Thomas Cherogony, was second and Vincent Krop made it a hat-trick for the East African country, coming in at third place.

Their compatriot, Irene Jerotich Koskei, topped the women's race, clocking in at 2 hours 35 minutes 22 seconds.

Despite the earlier start this year, at 5am, 37-year-old Mungara who was making his debut in Singapore, said he had a problem with the humidity.

"....very hot, even in the first kilometre I was sweating," he said.

Ethiopia's Ayelu Lemma Geda came in second while Annerien van Schalkwyk from South Africa was third in the women's elite race.

To accommodate the larger number of runners this year, the marathon had three start points - Orchard Road for the full marathon, Resorts World Sentosa for the half marathon and the Esplanade for the 10 km stretch.

But all 60,000 runners still ended their race at the Padang, something that could change in the future.

"If the race grows to a certain size and there is a need to actually have different end points so that everybody gets a quality experience, we won't discount that possibility," said Teo Ser Luck, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Community Development, Youth and Sports.

And a treat for fans this year was the special appearance of nine-time Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis.

The retired American athlete is in Singapore to present a cheque to the Singapore Children's Society and conduct a coaching clinic for Nike.

Speaking on his future plans, the 49-year-old sprinter said he may try long distance running.

Though Lewis did not reveal where or which marathon he would run, he said: "....not on my birthday but my 50th year, I am just going to run it, but just for charity, just for fun, definitely."

As for the Singapore Marathon, organisers will conduct a post-mortem soon.

Despite the race's earlier start, there were still complaints about the humidity. But the organisers have no plans to stage a night race. Instead they are looking at increasing the number of runners, and are targeting 100,000 runners by 2015.
 
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