FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Go East Young Woman
Whether it was a gamble or an investment, it paid off handsomely for Janet
Rono. The Kenyan was not one of those invited to run the Standard Chartered
Hong Kong Marathon on Sunday morning; but she decided to spend a thousand
dollars on a air ticket, entered as a member of the public, slept on a
colleague's floor, and then proceeded to break the course record, if only
by one second, but more importantly carried off the first prize of
US$34000. Normally, that is the sort of stunt that only a hedge fund
manager can get away with.
Whereas the latter will be vilified for it nowadays, the 22 year old Rono
is deserving only of praise for her initiative. On an unusually cool day,
even for February in Hong Kong, Rono clocked 2.33.42, beating the mark set
by Irina Bogacheva of Kyrgzstan in 2001. Second was the veteran Moroccan
Samira Raif, in 2.33.51, and third was Bifa Yeshinabet Tadesse of Ethiopia,
in 2.34.14.
It is a little remarked phenomenon on the marathon circuit, but there are
so many good Kenyan runners nowadays that, even with the hundreds of
marathons worldwide, a 2.15 East African man or a 2.35 woman (Rono's
previous best was 2.37.08) finds it hard to get race invites. So more and
more of them are assessing their chances in some of the lesser known races,
particularly in the Far East; and paying their own way. That shouldn't be a
problem for Rono from now on.
Her colleague Julius Maisei took a similar chance. But though he was
catching race leader Nelson Rotich in the final two kilometres, he had to
give best to his compatriot's 2.16.00 victory. Nevertheless Maisei also
made his trip well worthwhile, netting $15000 for second, in 2.16.06. In
third place was Tesfaye Girma Bekele of Ethiopia, in 2.16.31.
When the weather warms up, Hong Kong can be insufferable; the heat and
humidity combining with the pollution to put a damper on even the most
enthusiastic runner. But though Hong Kong does have a winter, albeit mild,
this race has had its share of overly warm days in the past. This morning
would have been perfect, but for the rain showers which made the road slick
in places. Temperature at 06.20 for the marathon start was 12C, and barely
rose before 0900, by which time, both men's and women's winners were
through the line in Victoria Park.
The organisers concede that if they employed pacemakers, they might get a
faster race, and men's winner Rotich concurred. "Yes, you might get a 2.12,
or even a 2.10 (the record is 2.13.09, from 1998), but even big races like
Boston have tried not to have pacemakers. But this course is very hard,
it's the hardest marathon course I've run (out of 14 races), and today was
slippery. But it was also slow, because we were all watching each other.
Everyone was playing it safe, because of the road conditions. The field was
still together at 37k (of 42), but I had made a couple of attempts to get
away, and I could see no one was going to follow me, so I had a good idea I
could win".
Rotich also won $34000, and said some of it would go to the less fortunate
runners in his training group, "so they can rent houses when they come to
train with us, and buy food".
Pursuant to the philosophy which brought Rono here to race, most of
Rotich's marathons have been in the Far East. For example, he has won
marathons in Korea, Malaysia, The Philippines, India and Thailand.
Accordingly the next two events on his schedule are Kuala Lumpur and
Taipei.
In overall terms, the event was a huge success. Hong Kong is
under-populated by Chinese standards, but so successful have local health
initiatives been since the SARS scare in the early years of the century,
race entry has escalated. There were over 10,000 in the full marathon
today, and another 55,000 in the 10k and half-marathon.
RESULTS
MEN
1 Nelson Kirwa ROTICH KEN 2.16.00 34,000 (US$)
2 Julius Kiplimo MAISEI KEN 2.16.06 15,000
3 Tesfaye Girma BEKELE ETH 2.16.31 6,500
4 Robert Kiplagat KOSEKEI KEN 2.16.53 3,600
5 Hammou MOUDOUJI MAR 2.16.55 1,800
6 Julius Kiprono MUTAI KEN 2.17.04 1,600
WOMEN
1 Janet Jelegat RONO KEN 2.33.42 34,000
2 Samira RAIF MAR 2.33.51 15,000
3 Bifa Yeshimabet TADESSE ETH 2.34.14 6,500
4 Negash Hadush LETAY ETH 2.35.35 3,600
5 CHENG Wenrong CHI 2.35.49 1,800
6 Rose CHESHIRE KEN 2.38.06 --------
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