THRILLING FINISH, FAST TIMES AT ROTTERDAM MARATHON
By David Monti
(c) 2009 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved. Used with permission.
With
500 meters remaining in the 29th Fortis Marathon Rotterdam today,
Kenyan James Kwambai seemed headed for the big marathon victory that he
so richly deserved. Second to Haile Gebrselassie at last year's real,-
Berlin Marathon when the Ethiopian great lowered his own world record,
Kwambai's 2:05:36 didn't get much attention. But today, off of an
aggressive early pace which saw the field hit 10-K in 29:18, Kwambai
smoked the 5 km between 30 and 35-K in 14:23 and had finally dropped
all of his rivals, even Nike/Rosa teammate Duncan Kibet, who had
drifted about ten meters back.
But in the final push for the
line, the bearded Kibet closed up on Kwambai, then unleashed the kick
which had brought him multiple victories on the USA road racing circuit
in 2007. Kibet scooted past his rival with just ten meters to go,
winning in a course record 2:04:27, the third-fastest marathon ever
run. Kwambai was given the same time.
Kibet is now the #2
performer of all-time behind only Gebrselassie (with Kwambai #3), and
displaced Paul Tergat as the Kenyan record holder. Not far behind,
Abel Kirui held on for third place in a personal best 2:05:04, the best
time ever for a third place finish in a marathon. Making his debut,
half-marathon ace Patrick Makau finished fourth in 2:06:14, the
second-fastest debut marathon performance ever.
There was a huge
upset in the women's race. Russian Nailya Yulamanova, who only had a
modest 2:30:17 personal best going into the race, beat both Kenyan
Lydia Cheromei and Romanian Adriana Pirtea, slashing her career best
time by nearly four minutes to 2:26:30. Cheromei was a distant second
in 2:28:09, and Pirtea was well back in third in 2:36:36.