FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Bogotá Half-Marathon
The favorites prevailed today in the 12th edition of the Media Maratón de
Bogotá as 2011 Boston Marathon Champion Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya took the
men's race in a course record 1:02:20, and 2011's fastest woman over 10K on
the road, Joyce Chepkirui, took the women's title in 1:13:34.
The Media Maratón de Bogotá is the only IAAF Gold Label Road Race in South
America.
Men's Race
Pre-race publicity favored a prolonged battle between defending champion
Deriba Merga of Ethiopia and Mutai. And the race did start out that way,
with Merga and Mutai powering away from the rest of the field to have a
substantial lead by 5K. They continued to run shoulder to shoulder past
7K, but shortly after that Merga dropped behind Mutai briefly, and then
quickly fell away.
Mutai passed 10K in 29:07 with Merga already 20 seconds behind. Mutai was
on a blistering 1:01:30 pace in Bogotá's Oxygen deficient 2600m (8530 ft)
altitude, though he was 11 seconds slower than Merga's even more blistering
opening the year before. In third place was Macharia, leading a small
group that included Ridouane Harroufi of Morocco, Stephen Mokaka of South
Africa and Colombia's Diego Colorado.
Mutai passed 15K in 44:10 running all alone, and at that stage was now 18
seconds behind Merga's 2010 course record. But Mutai held his form well to
breast the tape in 1:02:20, 11 seconds quicker than the 1:02:31 record from
last year. And Mutai achieved the mark on a somewhat revised course
consider tougher than last year's by many of the runners, Merga included!
Merga held on to second place in 1:04:49 from the fast closing 2011
Rotterdam Marathon champion Wilson Chebet 1:04:57 with Colorado fourth in
1:05:11 and 4-time champion Macharia fifth in 1:05:26.
Mutai margin of victory was an amazing 2 minutes and 27 seconds! Asked if
he knew he was on record pace and if this was his goal, Mutai replied that
he was running only for the victory and was pleasantly surprised to learn
that he had captured the record.
Women's Race
Kenyan Joyce Chepkirui took the lead from the very start, and powered
through the first kilometer in an eye-popping 3 minutes flat, with just
fellow Kenyan Peninah Arusei (a Bronze medalist over the half marathon in
the 2010 IAAF Half Marathon Championships in Nanning, China last year) and
Ethiopian Mare Dibaba for company.
The company didn't last long, as by 2K Chepkirui was alone and rapidly
building a massive lead. She passed through 5K in 16:28, by which time she
had an almost 30 second lead over Ethiopians Dibaba and 2010 Bogotá
Champion Sherwage Alene.
By 10K the lead was almost one minute, with Dibaba in second and 2010 IAAF
World Cross Country Champion Emily Chebet now in third.
The rapid early pace took a toll on Chepkirui, and her lead started to
shrink, slowly at first and then more rapidly in the final kilometers. But
she held on to win her first road race in South America with a time of
1:13:34. Dibaba crossed just 19 seconds later with 1:13:54 followed by
Chebet in third with 1:15:41, Alene fourth in 1:16:26 and Peruvian Gladys
Tejeda in fifth with 1:18:25.
Chepkirui commented that she found the altitude and the warm (16-20C),
humid race-day weather to be more tiring than she had expected, but was
happy that she held on to win.
The Media Maratón de Bogotá attracted 14,295 entrants thus year with
another 29,903 registered in the accompanying 10K, for a grand race day
total of 44,198.
Results
Men
1. Geoffrey Mutai KEN 1:02:20 CR* Car - Renault Logan
2. Deriba Merga ETH 1:04:49 12,000,000 Pesos
3. Wilson Chebet KEN 1:04:57 8,000,000
4. Diego Colorado COL 1:05:11 5,500,000
5. Isaac Macharia KEN 1:05:26 4,000,000
6. Constantino Leon PER 1:06:04 3,000,000
7. Jason Gutierrez COL 1:06:43 2,000,000
8. Stephen Mokaka RSA 1:07:17 1,500,000
9. Ridouane Harroufi MOR 1:07:21 800,000
10. Paulino Cachanya PER 1:07:24 500,000
11. Wirimai Juwawo ZIM 1:07:59
12. William Naranjo COL 1:08:00
13. Javier Guarin COL 1:08:53
14. Raul Pacheco PER 1:09:11
15. Fabian Daza COL 1:09:16
DNF Abderrahim Bouramdnae MOR
DNS Marilson Dos Santos BRA
* Mutai won an additional 3,100,000 Pesos for the Course Record
Women
1. Joyce Chepkirui KEN 1:13:34 Car – Renault Logan
2. Mare Dibaba ETH 1:13:54 12,000,000 pesos
3. Emily Chebet. KEN. 1:15:41 8,000,000
4. Shewage Alene ETH 1:16:26 5,500,000
5. Gladys Tejeda PER 1:16:33 4,000,000
6. Peninah Arusei KEN 1:18:16 3,000,000
7. Jemena Misayauri PER 1:18:25 2,000,000
8. Erika Abril Suarez COL 1:18:37 1,500,000
9. Bertha Sanchez COL 1:19:34 800,000
10. Leidy Tobon COL 1:19:43 500,000
DNS Atsede Baysa ETH
DNS Yulia Gromova RUS
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