Kipsang Kamworor Surprises Tadese at the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships

Published by the IAAF on March 29, 2014

Zersenay Tadese, the dominant force in men’s half-marathon running for almost a decade, was finally run out of the medals here at the IAAF/AL-Bank World Half Marathon Championships as he finished fourth in a race won by Kenya’s Geoffrey Kipsang Kamworor in 59:07, the world’s fastest time this year.

But the twist in the tale was that Tadese, after earning six consecutive silvers for Eritrea in the team event, finally got his hands on a team gold thanks to the additional efforts of Samuel Tsegay, who won the battle with Ethiopia’s Guye Adola to take silver in a personal best of 59:20, and Nguse Amlosom, fifth in 59:59. Adola earned bronze in a personal best of 59:20.

Kenya, team gold medallists on the past six occasions, had to settle for silver this time around, with bronze going to Ethiopia.

While much was made beforehand of the challenge the multiple Eritrean champion faced from Wilson Kiprop, who was returning to the event for the first time since winning the individual title in 2010, it was Kiprop’s colleague Kipsang who proved strongest on a day of bright sunshine and a welcome breeze.

Thus Tadese’s medal-winning sequence – five golds and a silver in the previous six runnings of this event – was brought to an end as he finished fourth in 59:37, faster than his winning times from 2008 and 2012. He also earned the distinction of a record ninth appearance at these championships.

The medal winners had effectively separated themselves by the 15km mark, with Kipsang driving ahead and Tsegay tracking him, a few metres ahead of the Ethiopian. At one point Tsegay strained round to try to gauge how far behind his famous fellow runner in the pale blue shirt was. But the gap was too much to make up, and Tsegay, whose previous best at these championships was a fifth place, concentrated on maximising his own performance.

The early lead had been taken by the Japanese through Kenta Murayama, Hiroto Inoue and Masato Kikuchi, but it was only a matter of time before the Kenyan, Ethiopian and Eritrean runners massed just behind them started to shape the main race.