KIPROP, KIPLAGAT WIN WORLD HALF TITLES IN CLOSE FINISHES
By David Monti
(c) 2010 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved - used with permission

(16-Oct) -- Wilson Kiprop and Florence Kiplagat led Kenya to a sweep of both the individual and team gold medals at today's IAAF/SINOPEC World Half-Marathon Championships in Nanning, China.  Overcoming soaking humidity and warm temperatures, both athletes prevailed in close finishes, only gaining the upper hand in the final meters to the tape.

For Kiprop, the 2010 African and Kenyan 10,000m champion, it was the biggest road running victory of his career.  Off of a slow first kilometer of just three minutes and ten seconds --actually slower than the women's first kilo of 3:07-- Kiprop joined teammates Sammy Kitwara, Titus Masai, Silas Kipruto and four-time defending champion Zersenay Tadese of Eritrea as part of a lead pack of ten which passed 10 km in 28:49.  Tadese's two teammates, Samuel Tsegay and Adhanom Abraha, were unable to stay on the pace when Tadese led the field through the next 5 kilometers in 14 minutes flat.  That left Tadese surrounded by Kipruto, Kitwara and Kiprop.

"The team was very strong," Kiprop told the IAAF's Bob Ramsak after the race.

Despite running with a slight limp, Tadese pushed the pace in the 16th kilometer, dropping Kipruto.  He pushed again at 17 km, putting Kitwara a few steps behind in third place and the taller Kiprop back on his heels.  Kiprop let Tadese do most of the leading in the final two kilometers to the finish, but the pair ran the last 800 meters side by side.  It looked like both would sprint all the way to the tape, but with about ten meters to go, Tadese pulled up and nearly stopped.  Limping badly, he jogged over the line four seconds behind Kiprop, 1:00:07 to 1:00:11.  That made Kiprop the first Kenyan men's winner at these championships since Paul Kirui in 2004.

"This is the first win for Kenya in a very long time," Kiprop said.  "And I'm very very happy for that."

Kitwara held on for third (1:00:22), and Kipruto fourth (1:01:03).  That gave the team title to Kenya with a total time of 3:01:32, almost a minute and a half ahead of the second place Eritreans.  The Ethiopians got third.

Only one non-African, Japan's Tomoya Onishi, cracked the top-10.  He finished in ninth place in a personal best 1:01:31.  The best North American was the United States' Sean Quigley in 18th place in a personal best 1:03:23, and the best European was France's Reuben Iindongo (a former Namibian), who finished 20th in 1:03:26.

Kiplagat, the 2009 IAAF World Cross Country champion, had only run one half-marathon prior to these championships, clocking a swift 1:07:40 debut at the Semi-Marathon International de Lille Métropole on September 4.  She was part of an aggressive lead pack of ten women --four Kenyans, five Ethiopians and Australia's Nikki Chapple-- who hit 5 km in 15:53.  The most dangerous athlete amongst the Ethiopians was 2008 Boston Marathon winner Dire Tune, the national half-marathon record holder with a 1:07:18 personal best.  Kiplagat knew it would be tough to win.

"It was not easy with strong competition today," she told the IAAF. 

Kiplagat's teammate, Peninah Arusei, did most of the leading in the first half of the race.  The pace moderated through 10 km (32:32/16:39) as the high humidity took its toll.  Chapple was the only athlete to fall back, and was now running alone in tenth place.  The race quickly became the familiar battle of the Kenyans against the Ethiopians, and Kiplagat knew that her finish time wasn't important.

"The climate today was not easy, so I wasn't worried about the time," Kiplagat explained.

The pace went back up in the next 5 kilometers (16:10), and that winnowed the contenders to just four: Kiplagat, Feyse Tadese, Tune and Arusei.  Tadese was soon dropped, Arusei faded to third where she would remain until the finish, and Kiplagat and Tune were now locked in the battle for gold.  The pair ran side by side, until the final kilometer when Kiplagat finally broke the Ethiopian.  Her winning margin of ten seconds, 1:08:24 to 1:08:34, didn't tell the story because Tune was right with her until about 800m to go.

"The conditions were not very good, so I was happy with second place," Tune told the IAAF.  "I'm very satisfied in these conditions."

With Arusei (1:09:05) and Joyce Chepkirui (1:09:30) finishing third and fifth, Kenya took the team title by more than half a minute over the Ethiopians, 3:26:59 to 3:27:33.  Japan was a distant third in 3:33:40; their top finisher Yoshimi Ozaki only finished ninth.

The first non-African was China's Zhu Xiaolin in 1:11:01, Chapple would finish 12th in 1:11:25, the first European was Poland's Karolina Jarzynska (17th, 1:12:36), and the top North American was the United States' Steph Rothstein (19th, 1:13:37).

A total prize money purse of USD 245,000 was on offer in Nanning. The top-3 male and female finishers received USD 30,000, 15,000, and 10,000, respectively, and the top-3 teams took home USD 15,000, 12,000 and 9,000. 

The next IAAF World Half-Marathon Championships will be contested in the Kavarna, Bulgaria, on the Black Sea coast, in 2012.

ENDS