KUALA LUMPUR, June 28 (Bernama) -- Julius Ndiritu Karinga, running his maiden 42km full marathon, clocked two hours 17 minutes and two seconds to win the inaugural Standard Chartered KL Marathon, leading a Kenyan clean sweep of the top three places in the men's category, here today.
Karinga came home more than a minute ahead of his compatriots, Nelson Kirwa Rotich and Armon Kipchirchir Kemei who clocked 2'18:24s and 2'18:55s respectively to clinch second and third places. The race started and finished at Dataran Merdeka.
For his feat, Karinga received USD20,000 (RM70,694) from the Prime Minister's wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor while Kirwa Rotich and Kipchirchir Kemei took home USD8,000 (RM28,277.60) and USD5,000 (RM17,673.50) respectively.
Karinga said he could not believe he had won, since this was his first attempt in a full marathon.
"Previously, I took part only in the 21km event (half marathon)," he told reporters here today after the race. "When I came here, I set my mind that I'm here to compete. It is not hard to compete in the full marathon event. What I need was just hard work. I started training for the marathon (KL Marathon) since the last three month and I'm just shocked to have won over other top marathon runners," said Karinga."
His next international participation would be the Hong Kong Marathon in December.
Karinga also expressed confidence that he would be back here to defend the title next year.
In the women's 42km category, Frieda Jepkite Lodepa bettered the time of 2'54:23s she registered at the Kuala Lumpur International Marathon last year by clocking 2'40:13s today. Following about five minutes behind her was Japan's Doreen Kitaka who clocked 2'45:51s.
"It was great to win it again in Malaysia. However, the competition is tougher than in the previous year," said Lodepa whose personal best time is 2'13:00s clocked at the Milan Marathon in 2007.
The best Malaysian in the men's 42km race was Muniandy Ramadass who clocked 2'31:52s while Yuan Yu Fang topped the women's category with a time of 3'16:36s. For their feat, Muniandy and Yu Fang took home a cash prize of RM8,750 each. The KL Marathon with its theme 'Run Your Race' is divided into five categories with distances of 42km (full marathon), 21km (half marathon), 10km, 5km, Family & Fun Run, as well as the Kids Dash (3km and 950m).
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