Lelisa Desisa and Caroline Rotich are set to defend their titles at the 120th running of the BAA Boston Marathon on Monday (18), one of the world&rsquo;s most venerated road races one of only three IAAF Gold Label Road Races in the US.
Although the point-to-point race from the distant western suburb of Hopkinton in to Boston&rsquo;s Back Bay is generally known more for its challenging profile than its fast times, Boston has been a prestigious international title since long before the professional era. Launched in 1897 on a course planned specifically in imitation of the classic Marathon-to-Athens course at the first modern Olympics, the race was one of the most competitive in the world in the days before international air travel. More recently, winning in Boston launched the careers of athletes like Bill Rodgers, Joan Benoit Samuelson, Uta Pippig, and Robert Cheruiyot.
Highlighting this year&rsquo;s men&rsquo;s race is defending champion Desisa, winner in 2013 and 2015. Should Desisa pick up a third win, a feat which has proven remarkably difficult in Boston (Cheruiyot was the last man to do it), he&rsquo;d seal his place as one of Boston&rsquo;s favourites, a position he first earned by returning his 2013 medal to the city in a gesture of sympathy.
Should the day prove warm, and forecasts suggest it might, Wesley Korir could have an edge. Korir was the winner in 2012, the last hot day in Boston. Since then, however, Korir has been elected to the Kenyan parliament, a side job which has put a dent in his training regime. To win, the world&rsquo;s fastest legislator will need a race which lets him use his tactical intelligence as much as his speed.
<h3>Seven men with sub-2:05 credentials on the start line</h3>
Along with the two former champions, Boston brings five more men with sub-2:05 PBs to the narrow starting line in Hopkinton. Sammy Kitwara ran 2:04:28 at the 2014 Chicago Marathon, making him the fastest in the field by a bare four seconds over Tsegaye Mekonnen, whose 2:04:32 came in Dubai the same year.
Kitwara, who has finished second twice at the Chicago Marathon, joins Yemane Tsegay, second last year here in Boston, as contenders looking for their first big wins. Kitwara is the younger of the two, with only seven previous marathon finishes under his belt. Tsegay, who also collected silver at the World Championships marathon in Beijing last summer, has wins in Ottawa, Daegu, Eindhoven, Taipei, and Otsu (Lake Biwa) on his resume, but nothing as big as Boston yet.
Tsegaye Mekonnen, a virtual kid at 21, has only five marathon starts on his record, but has twice run faster than 2:05. Both of those marks came in Dubai, where Mekonnen has finished first (in 2014) and third (this January); in 2014 he came back to finish fifth in London. His performance in Boston may depend on his ability to recover after Dubai and build on his fitness. Boston will also be Mekonnen&rsquo;s first major race on a course with significant hills.
Joining Mekonnen, another member of the sub-2:05 club is also another Dubai victor, Lemi Berhanu Hayle. Hayle doubled back from winning Dubai in January 2015 to add another win in Warsaw that April. He followed that up four months later with a 15th-place finish at the World Championships in Beijing. This year he was second in Dubai, notably ahead of Mekonnen.
<h3>Rotich and Gelana familiar names - women's race</h3>
Among the women, picking a favorite might be as challenging as arriving in Newton ready to climb. Defending champion Caroline Rotich is back and not to be ignored, but her 2015 victory was not the kind of dominant performance that intimidates the competition. Outside victories in Prague and Las Vegas, Rotich&rsquo;s best performances have been fourth-place finishes in Boston, Chicago, Tokyo, and Yokohama.
The next most familiar name on the entry list is that of Tiki Gelana, the Olympic champion, Olympic record-holder and Ethiopian record-holder. Gelana earned all of those accolades in 2012, however, and since then her best result has been a third-place finish in Tokyo in 2015 as she tries to recover the thread of brilliance she followed in the last Olympic year.
Gelana&rsquo;s presence in Boston is likely due to both the Ethiopian and Kenyan federations considering results from Boston in their Olympic team selection. A win in Boston, even without a sparkling time, would make it easy for Ethiopian officials to give her the opportunity to defend her Olympic title.
Buzunesh Deba also demands attention on the starting line. A two-time runner-up in New York and the owner of the fastest legal time on the Boston course (Deba finished behind Rita Jeptoo in 2014), Deba is Ms Silver of major marathons.
As in the men&rsquo;s field, Dubai winners are prominent in the women&rsquo;s field. Tirfi Tsegaye is the current Dubai champion and won in 2013 as well; Mamitu Daska is also a past Dubai winner. Atsede Baysa has won both the Chicago and Paris Marathons twice; Joyce Chepkirui has won in Amsterdam and Honolulu since finishing 10th here in 2015. And Jelena Prokupcuka, the two-time New York champion and two-time Boston runner-up, has returned for another tilt at the Boston windmill.
The top women will start shortly after 9:30, nearly half an hour before the men lead the first of five mass waves.
Parker Morse for the IAAF

Lelisa Desisa and Caroline Rotich are set to defend their titles at the 120th running of the BAA Boston Marathon on Monday (18), one of the world’s most venerated road races and one of only three IAAF Gold Label Road Races in the US.

Desisa and Rotich ready to defend in Boston

Organisers of the Boston Marathon today announced that Lelisa Desisa and Caroline Rotich will defend their titles at the IAAF Gold Label Road Race on 18 April 2016.Last year the chase for the men&rsquo;s title was aggressive with a deep international field of Olympic medallists, world champions, and World Marathon Majors winners battling for the win in rainy and windy conditions.Experience proved the deciding factor, however, as Desisa broke away from Yemane Tsegay and Wilson Chebet in the closing mile to secure his second Boston Marathon title, becoming the only Ethiopian man to have won the race twice.The 25-year-old took the silver medal at the 2013 IAAF World Championships, having won the Dubai Marathon earlier that year in a personal best of 2:04:45. Desisa has also twice made it on to the podium at the New York City Marathon.&ldquo;I am so happy to return to Boston in 2016 to try to make history as a three-time champion of the world's most historic race and to do my best to represent Ethiopian running on the global stage,&rdquo; said Desisa. &ldquo;Boston has become more than a race to me; the city and its people are special and my wins in Boston are the most important moments in my career. I am dreaming of crossing the finish line first for the third time." In last year&rsquo;s women&rsquo;s race, there was another dramatic finish that hundreds of thousands of fans have come to expect at the Boston Marathon. In the final mile, three women pulled away from the lead pack: Caroline Rotich, Mare Dibaba and Buzunesh Deba.As Deba faded rounding the historic right on Hereford and left on Boylston, Rotich and Dibaba raced side by side down the finish stretch. Rotich called upon her inner reserves for a final surge and prevailed over Dibaba by four seconds for the win.&ldquo;Winning the 2015 Boston Marathon was my biggest and most treasured performance,&rdquo; said Rotich, a former winner of the Prague and Las Vegas marathons. &ldquo;For what Boston has given me and what Boston has endured, I would like to give back by defending my title on April 18. I cannot wait to line up with everyone else and give it 100 percent."&ldquo;Lelisa and Caroline are inspiring and popular champions of the streets of Boston that our fans and followers will surely be eager to see again,&rdquo; said BAA executive director Tom Grilk. &ldquo;They have not only proven themselves at the Boston Marathon, but they have returned to run other Boston road races, endearing themselves to our spectators and their fellow participants. We are always particularly proud to be able to welcome back our defending champions.&rdquo;Organisers for the IAAF

Organisers of the Boston Marathon today announced that Lelisa Desisa and Caroline Rotich will defend their titles at the IAAF Gold Label Road Race on 18 April 2016.

Desisa and Rotich will defend Boston Marathon titles

Caroline Rotich and Lelisa Desisa won the Boston Marathon titles on Monday (20) in the 119th running of the IAAF Gold Label Road Race. Rotich&rsquo;s victory was the biggest race of her career to date, and Desisa returned to put good memories in place of bad ones from the race he won in 2013.<h3>Rotich makes good</h3>Caroline Rotich left her victory much later than Desisa, as yet again Boston&rsquo;s women&rsquo;s race came down to the final strides on Boyleston Street. This time the duel was Rotich and Mare Dibaba, with Buzunesh Deba, last year&rsquo;s second-place finisher, left behind only as the trio made the first of two corners in the race&rsquo;s closing stages, within a kilometre of the finish.Dibaba seemed to have the upper hand, but Rotich found another gear and was able to pull away in the last strides, putting four seconds on Dibaba in what seemed like the last inches. Rotich finished in 2:24:55 after passing halfway in 1:12:45. Dibaba was four seconds back in 2:24:59, and Deba another 10 seconds adrift in 2:25:09.&ldquo;I swung wide,&rdquo; Rotich said of her move on the final corner, &ldquo;and I thought, &lsquo;we&rsquo;re so far away, I can&rsquo;t see the finish line&rsquo;. So I fell back, but then I saw the finish line, and I came back and had to give all the strength I had to reach the finish line.&ldquo;In Santa Fe [where Rotich trained this winter] we had cold weather, not too much snow. I knew there would be a chance of getting cold. I saw there would be a chance of rain, and I was happy it could be rain instead of cold, but it was cold. I got through because I&rsquo;ve been training in wind and cold.&rdquo;Dibaba, the current world leader with her 2:19:52 run in Xiamen, admitted: &ldquo;I was confident that I could win, but at the end I saw I would have to settle for second.&rdquo;Rotich first ran the Boston Marathon in 2011, finishing fourth, but until today her biggest marathon win was Prague in 2013; her PB of 2:23:22 goes back to Chicago in 2012.Raised in Nyahururu, Kenya, the 30-year-old Rotich ran in Japan early in her career, attending Sendai Ikuei Gakuen, the same school that the late 2008 Olympic champion Sammy Wanjiru attended.Following
 Rotich, Dibaba, and Deba across the finish line, 2011 runner-up Desiree Linden 
was fourth in 2:25:39. 2012 champion Sharon Cherop was fifth in 2:26:05, 
and 2011 champion
 Caroline Kilel sixth in 2:26:40.After Aberu Kebede in 2:26:52, world 
junior best holder Shure Demise was eighth in 2:27:14 and 2008 Olympic 10,000m bronze medallist Shalane Flanagan was ninth in 2:27:47. Rounding
 out the top 10 was Joyce Chepkirui, the African
 10,000m champion, in 2:29:07; the only top-10 finisher in either the men's or women's race to set a PB.<h3>Desisa replaces his medal</h3>Desisa, the 2013 world silver medallist, hadn&rsquo;t won a marathon since his victory two years ago in Boston. After his runner-up finish in Moscow, Desisa did not finish here in 2014, and then lost a close duel with Wilson Kipsang in New York City last autumn.After yet another second place in Dubai this January, in Boston the only &lsquo;second&rsquo; about Desisa would be &lsquo;second victory&rsquo;. His finish time of 2:09:17 was faster than his 2013 victory &ndash; that year he won in 2:10:22 &ndash; and his fastest time outside of Dubai.With overcast skies, occasional spitting rain and wind in the runners&rsquo; faces in several sections, nobody was anxious to lead the pack or push the pace. Desisa had no issues staying in contact, constantly present amid a lead pack which numbered more than a dozen until late in the race.Ten men crested the high point of &lsquo;Heartbreak Hill&rsquo; in Newton together, and only then in the ensuing descents did the pack start to break up for good. The pack thinned to three, 2012 champion Wesley Korir, Desisa and Ethiopia&rsquo;s Yemane Tsegay.By the next mile, as the course passed through Brookline, Desisa was able to break up even that small pack, with Korir expiring rapidly (he fell back to fifth in the closing two miles). Tsegay hung on longer, closing the gap on Desisa more than once but unable to deliver the coup de grace.After 2013, Desisa returned his winner&rsquo;s medal to the City of Boston when he came back to run the BAA 10K in July, but it wasn&rsquo;t until today that he was able to replace it. He was visibly elated at the finish, and immediately turned to run back down Boyleston Street to thank the many spectators from a city which has treated him better than any other now.&ldquo;I knew I would need speed for the last mile,&rdquo; Desisa explained to the press afterwards in hesitant English. &ldquo;I knew I had the kick. I had confidence that I could win after 10km, because I saw the race would not be fast. When we came down the hills I started to surge so I would not have to kick.&ldquo;For us, this race is big, big, big,&rdquo; added Desisa, speaking for all the Ethiopians in the lead group. &nbsp;Three Ethiopians have won the Boston Marathon in this century, with Desisa the first to win a second time.Tsegay, the 2012 Rotterdam champion in 2:04:48, has won in Eindhoven, Daegu and Ottawa since then, but was making his first appearance in Boston. &ldquo;The race today was very difficult,&rdquo; he reported. &ldquo;Through halfway we were fast, but in the second half the wind picked up.&rdquo;Wilson Chebet, second in 2014, took third in 2:10:22. Bernard Kipyego, fourth in 2:10:47, was the other runner to get by Korir, whose 2:10:49 was good for fifth. Sixth went
 to Frankline Chepkwony, third last year, in 2:10:52; he was followed by Dathan Ritzenhein in 2:11:20.Defending champion Meb Keflezighi was eighth in 2:12:42. Keflezighi stuck with the pack through 35km but then had to drop off. &ldquo;I thought I had a shot at it,&rdquo; he explained.Rounding out the top 10 was Tadese Tola in 2:13:35 and Vitaliy Shafar in 2:13:52.Parker Morse for the IAAF

Caroline Rotich and Lelisa Desisa won the Boston Marathon titles on Monday (20) in the 119th running of the IAAF Gold Label Road Race. Rotich’s victory was the biggest race of her career to date, and Desisa returned to put good memories in place of bad ones from the race he won in 2013.

Rotich wins in close finish while Desisa regains Boston Marathon title

More than two years after striking gold at the London 2012 Olympics, Ethiopia's Tiki Gelana will aim to end a marathon victory drought on Sunday (16) at the Yokohama International Women's Marathon, an IAAF Silver Label Road Race.Gelana&rsquo;s slump can be traced back to a freak accident at the 2013 London Marathon, where she fell and suffered a foot injury after colliding with a wheelchair racer at a drinks station and finished in 16th place.She followed that by dropping out in the early stages of the marathon at the World Championships in Moscow in August on a day she described as being &ldquo;too hot&rdquo;, and then finished ninth at this year's London Marathon in April in 2:26:58, eight minutes off her personal best.&ldquo;I ran those races, but I had pain because of the accident at the London Marathon,&rdquo; Gelana said through an interpreter during a visit Thursday to Yokohama&rsquo;s Byobugaura Elementary School with fellow runners Philes Ongori and Marisa Barros. &ldquo;After London, I ran with only one good leg. Now I can run with full power in both legs, so it's no problem at all.&rdquo;With strong showings in several recent road races, Gelana said she&rsquo;s ready to be the first to break the tape at the finish in bayfront Yamashita Park.&ldquo;I have prepared very much for this race,&rdquo; said Gelana, whose Ethiopian record of 2:18:58 set when winning the 2012 Rotterdam Marathon puts her fifth on the world all-time list. &ldquo;Before I had pain in my foot, but I have recovered.&rdquo;Gelana heads a field that includes Ongori and Kenyan compatriot Caroline Rotich, who share personal bests of 2:23:22, among the 14 invited runners in the sixth and final edition of the race in the port city about 30km south of Tokyo.The other invited foreign runners are Russia&rsquo;s Alina Prokopeva, who won her third career marathon this summer in Nagano in 2:30:56, along with Ukraine's Olena Shurhno, Lithuania&rsquo;s Zivile Balciunaite, Barros of Portugal and South Africa&rsquo;s Irvette Van Zyl.Leading the host nation contingent will be last year&rsquo;s runner-up Azusa Nojiri, the cross-country skier-turned-marathoner who won the Hokkaido Marathon in August. The 32-year-old, who was 19th at the 2011 World Championships, ran a career best of 2:24:57 when finishing third in Osaka in 2013.For the Japanese runners, the race is also serving as the first of three domestic qualifying races for next year&rsquo;s IAAF World Championships in Beijing. The other invited entries are Tomomi Tanaka, who was fifth in her debut in Nagoya in March, Mayumi Fujita, Nanami Matsuura, Kumi Ogura and teenager Reia Iwade, who will be making her marathon debut after setting the Japan junior record in the half-marathon of 1:09:45 last December.The race, which originally started in Tokyo in 1979 and was moved to Yokohama in 2009 following the launch of the mass participation Tokyo Marathon, will be discontinued after this year, reportedly for financial reasons. It is also speculated that it is a victim of a trend of moving away from elite, single-gender races to the mass participation events. The JAAF is working to add a mass race in Saitama, north of Tokyo, to replace the Yokohama event.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a shock, because I like to race in women-only races,&rdquo; said Ongori, who attended high school and spent her early years as a pro in Japan.Gelana, who spent half a year in Japan competing for Denso in 2007, has had success here since leaving. She won back-to-back titles in the Marugame Half Marathon in 2012-13.&ldquo;I like Japan. I come year by year. I&rsquo;m happy to run here,&rdquo; said Gelana.This autumn, over a month-long span from 7 September, Gelana showed she was back on a healthy track by finishing third in a pair of half-marathons in Britain and second in a 10-mile race in the Netherlands.Gelana, who broke Naoko Takahashi&rsquo;s Olympic record in London to add to her race mark in Rotterdam, says she anticipates a winning time of 2:22-23, which would eclipse the Yokohama course record of 2:23:07 set in 2012 by Kenya&rsquo;s Lydia Cheromei.The main factor will be the intensity of the ever-prevalent winds that come off the bay and sweep across the loop course.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know about the weather, I don&rsquo;t know the course,&rdquo; said Gelana. &ldquo;High pace is good, but the wind is a problem.&rdquo;Ongori won her debut marathon in Rotterdam in 2011 and clocked her personal best in April in Boston, where she placed ninth in her fourth career marathon. After suffering from a leg cramp and finishing fifth last year in Yokohama, she says she&rsquo;s primed for a first marathon title in her second homeland.&ldquo;This year everything is good,&rdquo; said 2009 world half-marathon silver medallist Ongori, whose track PBs for 3000m, 5000m and 10,000m have all been set in Yokohama. &ldquo;I didn't get any injuries. Sunday I am going to do something, if the weather is going to be good.&rdquo;John Ondari, her husband and coach, said Ongori is well prepared.&ldquo;Hopefully, this time around things are going to be on our side,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;In spite of the competition from the Olympic champion, we are optimistic. The training has been good, the speed work and everything.&rdquo;Rotich, whose PB of 2:23:22 came while finishing fifth in Chicago in 2012, finished fourth at the Tokyo Marathon last February. The Kenyan has two victories in 10 career marathons, in Las Vegas in 2010 and Prague in 2013, the latter on the day before her 29th birthday.Shurhno, who failed to finish the 2013 Tokyo Marathon, will be looking to emulate last year's winner, Albina Mayorova of Russia, as a former pace-maker who later entered and won the race. She ran a career best of 2:23:32 at the 2012 Berlin Marathon, where she finished third.Barros has twice finished third in Yokohama, in 2011 and 2012, but might be hard-pressed to better that performance after suffering a left knee injury at the European Championships in Zurich, where she placed 20th. She said she is not at the level of preparation as she was two years ago.If experience plays a factor, then Balciunaite has a step on the competition, although she has not run faster than 2:30 since 2008. Among her 30 marathons dating back to 2000, her personal best of 2:25:15 came at the Yokohama race's predecessor in Tokyo in 2005, when she finished second.Ken Marantz for the IAAF

More than two years after striking gold at the London 2012 Olympics, Ethiopia's Tiki Gelana will aim to end a marathon victory drought on Sunday (16) at the Yokohama International Women's Marathon, an IAAF Silver Label Road Race.

Gelana looks to get back to winning ways in Yokohama

The 6th Yokohama Women's Marathon on 16 November, an IAAF Silver Label Road Race, will have Olympic marathon champion Tiki Gelana as their star attraction.The 26-year-old Ethiopian has not yet returned to the heights she scaled two years ago when she won the 2012 Rotterdam Marathon in what remains her personal best of 2:18:58 and then took the Olympic title, but she has shown good form on the roads over shorter distances in the past seven weeks and could have Lydia Cheromei’s Yokohama course record of 2:23:07, also set in 2012, in her sights.Gelana has never run a marathon in Japan but she is still familiar with the Japanese roads after winning the 2012 and 2013 Marugame Half Marathon.The Kenyan pair of Philes Ongori and Caroline Rotich, who have identical bests of 2:23:22, could challenge Gelana and their compatriot’s standard in the Japanese city. Leading the European contingent will be Ukraine’s Olena Shurhno, along with Portugal’s Marisa Barros.There are also three Japanese runners with personal bests faster than 2:30, who will be looking to push their credentials for selection to next year’s IAAF World Championships as this race is a selection event for Beijing.The best of the local runners is Azusa Nojiri, who has a personal best of 2:24:57 from two years ago.Nojiri did not break 2:30 in her two marathon outings this year but gained the first marathon win of her career when she won in Sapporo in 2:30:26 in August, and that victory will certainly have boosted her confidence.Phil Minshull and organisers for the IAAF<h3>Elite field (with PBs):</h3>Tiki Gelana (ETH) 2:18:58 Philes Ongori (KEN) 2:23:22 Caroline Rotich (KEN) 2:23:22 Olena Shurhno (UKR) 2:23:32 Azusa Nojiri (JPN) 2:24:57 Marisa Barros (POR) 2:25:04 Zivile Balciunaite (LTU) 2:25:15 Tomomi Tanaka (JPN) 2:26:05 Mayumi Fujita (JPN) 2:29:02 Alina Prokopeva (RUS) 2:30:56 Irvette van Zyl (RSA) 2:31:26 Reia Iwade (JPN) debut

The 6th Yokohama Women's Marathon on 16 November, an IAAF Silver Label Road Race, will have Olympic marathon champion Tiki Gelana as their star attraction.

Olympic champion Gelana heads Yokohama field

Nicholas Kemboi and Caroline Rotich celebrated their biggest career wins at the 19th edition of the Volkswagen Prague&nbsp;Marathon, crossing the line at the IAAF Gold Label Road Race in 2:08:51 and 2:27:00 on Sunday (12).Kemboi, born in Kenya but now representing Qatar and the 2009 Asian Championships 10000m silver medallist, was not among the favourites before the start but was with the leaders almost all the time from 16km. Along with the Kenyan pair of the pacemaker Silas Ngetich and Julius Arile, as well as Ethiopia’s Girmay Birhanu, Kemboi helped increase the pace at that point and broke up the big leading group. Ngetich soon dropped out the leading trio passed the half way mark in 1:03:21. However, the uneven pace and warm weather, with the temperatures well over 30 degrees Celsius combined to thwart any chance of really fast times or course records.Soon after the 30km mark, which had been reached in 1:30:36, Kemboi briefly lost contact with his two rivals but quickly managed to recover before turning on the heat himself. “When I was running, I came across a raised cobblestone. After that, I felt a little bit of fatigue in the left leg, something like a slight muscle pull. That is why I fell behind. After about a kilometre, this feeling went away and that is why I closed the gap,” explained the 29-year-old Kemboi, after finishing just his third marathon after second place in Valencia two years ago in 2:08:01 and a fifth in Istanbul last year in a modest 2:20:40. At 34km, Birhanu was dropped, and two kilometres later Arile was beaten as well, the latter eventually fading badly to finish seventh.Kemboi quickly opened up a 10-second gap over the flagging Arile and had a 28 second advantages by 40km.“Running alone in front I looked back at 38km, and knew that I would win,” added Kemboi, who hopes that his next Marathon will be at the World Championships in Moscow this August. Kemboi now a confirmed road runnerHe ran 26:30.03 for the 10,000 m in Brussels back in 2003 as a 19-year-old and is still the fourth fastest 10000m runner ever. “But I now concentrate on road running,” he confirmed. Birhanu recovered well to take second place in 2:09:30. For the Ethiopian it was a remarkable second marathon within two months, and his second runner-up position as well after he ran a personal best of 2:08:11 in Rome on 17 March. Kenya’s Patrick Terer finished third in 2:10:10 after a Marathon of a different kind in the last week. Terer was originally one of the favourites for the Hanover Marathon last Sunday but his Schengen visa was made invalid in Nairobi when he was about to fly to Hanover via Amsterdam. However, the Prague Marathon’s elite race coordinator Jana Moberly managed to get him a new visa for the Czech&nbsp;Republic but realised, just before Terer travelled, that the start date of the visa was wrong. After more urgent contact with the Czech embassy in Nairobi it was finally assured that Terer could fly to Prague.It was hoped that the women would run at a pace that could lead to Lydia Cheromei’s 2011 course record of 2:22:34 being challenged, but like in the men’s race, the warm weather meant that threat never materialised. The Kenyan trio of Caroline Rotich, Cheromei and Philes Ongori passed the half way mark in 1:13:03. Soon afterwards, Rotich broke away and established a substantial lead before crossing the line in 2:27:00.By contrast Cheromei, who had a hip problem in the build-up to Prague but said on Friday she was OK to run, dropped back and she finished a disappointing sixth in 2:34:26. Ethiopia’s Ehitu Kiros first overtook Ongori at 25km but it was then Ongori who came back to her and finally took second place with 2:28:53. Kiros followed in third with 2:30:02. “This win gives me a good platform for my future marathon career. Every marathon is different. In Prague I really enjoyed the atmosphere and I would like to come back next year,” said Rotich, who will celebrate her 29th birthday on Monday and who had won the New York Half Marathon in March with an impressive 1:09:09 in difficult conditions.Jörg Wenig (organisers) for the IAAF &nbsp;&nbsp;

Kemboi and Rotich claim good wins in Prague Marathon 

Nicholas Kemboi and Caroline Rotich celebrated their biggest career wins at the 19th edition of the Volkswagen Prague Marathon, crossing the line at the IAAF Gold Label Road Race in 2:08:51 and 2:27:00 on Sunday (12).

New York, USA - When you start a high-performance car on a cold winter’s morning, it usually takes a few minutes for the engine to prime and the same could be said for Kenya’s Wilson Kipsang at the NYC Half Marathon on Sunday (17).Kipsang took nearly a half hour to get into top gear on this frigid day but, once he did, the London 2012 Olympic Games Marathon bronze medalist easily cruised past Italy’s Daniele Meucci and local hope Dathan Ritzenhein and sped to victory in 1:01:02. Bernard Lagat, the 38-year-old middle-distance track veteran, was solid in his debut as at the distance, finishing 12th in 1:02:33. Prior to this, the longest race he had ever run was a 10km cross country almost two decades ago as a student at Washington State University.On the women’s side, Kenya’s Caroline Rotich was cooking early, breaking from the field three miles into the race and building a sizeable advantage by 15km. She was eventually caught by Burundi’s Diane Nukuri-Johnson of Burundi and Croatian surprise Lisa Stublić but held tough to recapture her 2011 title in 1:09:09.The Kenyan pair each earned US $20,000 in prize money for their victories.Cold start, hot finish for KipsangWith temperatures dipping to 30 degrees Fahrenheit, five degrees below the average low, at the start, the elite men put any thoughts of sub-60-minute times into the deep freeze. The opening mile was covered in 4:58, more than 20 seconds slower than in 2012. The lead pack was still 20 strong after moving through 5km in 15:03, and remained tightly bunched as they wound their way out of Central Park and onto Seventh Avenue. It wasn’t until the 10km mark that Kipsang began feeling like he was warmed up and ready to go.“I think if it could have been a little bit warmer, you find that the guys could really run at a faster pace, but because it was very cold everyone was not comfortable,” said Kipsang. “So if you try to keep a push you really feel like you are running faster, but in a real sense, the time is slow. “After 10K, I saw that the time was a little bit slow, 29 or so, so I decided to push for the second half to see if I could run a faster time,” he added. Just before reaching Times Square, Kipsang put on a small surge, which began to string out the leading group. Mexico’s &nbsp;Juan Luis Barrios, Kenya’s Julius Arile, Ritzenhein and Lagat easily covered the move and continued to hang on. Kipsang slipped back a bit thereafter with Barrios taking the lead as the runners made the turn onto 42nd Street and headed toward the West Side highway. Running along the Hudson River waterfront, Ritzenhein thought about the track speed of his American Olympic teammate Lagat and made a push to the front in front of Pier 76, covering the ninth mile in 4:34 to further string out the leaders. It was here that Lagat began to fade, slipping from fourth to 10th. “The race went about exactly how I thought it would be, just a little bit slower,” said Ritzenhein. “I thought we'd be a little closer to 60 minutes. I still anticipated it being slower early on just because of the park and the cold. I mean, in the cold, it's just hard to get going. “Bernard is an amazing athlete. I didn't really want him to be there. I think Alberto (Salazar, Ritzenheim’s coach) wanted me to wait a little bit longer, but the pace was really slow. I was like, I'm going to try to get it going, and then Wilson took off and got the pace going fast, so that kind of got rid of him.”However, Ritzenhein’s lead was short-lived as Kipsang began to impose his will and pace on the field. Picking up the tempo at the 15km mark, he dropped in a 4:26 10th mile, the fastest of the race, to surge ahead of Ritzenhein and the others. Kipsang covered the next mile in 4:31, continuing to pad his lead. He split 13:58 for the five kilometres between 15km and 20km.“It wasn’t part of my plan to wait until the 15km, but I think at the start it was not really possible to push too hard because it was very cold,” said Kipsang, who indicated he now feels ready for next month’s Virgin London Marathon. “In the group also, you saw many guys were trying to push but it wasn’t possible.”Solid first effort for LagatComing into the race, Lagat had hoped to run a time closer 61 minutes, which was rendered unrealistic by the weather conditions. Nevertheless, he was generally happy with his debut.“I had so much fun today, especially those first miles up to nine,” said Lagat. “I was still enjoying it until like when the pace kind of picked it up a little bit after the ninth mile. That is when I started feeling a little tired over there. I kept trying to see if I could push a little more, but the guys were hammering it up, and I could not get myself moving. I kept digging deeper because I wanted to run a good time. “I'm pleased with my time, 62. Of course, I wanted to see if I could run something faster than that. For my first experience, it was tough, but now I know how to run a Half Marathon in the future.”Lagat said he will focus now on his training for the outdoor season, when he will bid to make the US 5000m team heading to Moscow for the IAAF World Championships.Rotich rules early, rolls lateThe women’s race appeared as though it would be a rout. Rotich ran alongside New Zealand’s Kim Smith, the runner-up in this race last year, in the opening miles before Smith, a notorious front-runner, began to fade badly before eventually dropping out of the race on Seventh Avenue.From three miles in, Rotich was on a solo run through Central Park and through Midtown. When she rounded the hairpin turn onto the West Side Highway, there was not another female competitor in sight and when she hit the 15km mark in 49:17, she had an eight-second cushion.However, before long, two strikingly different figures came in to view behind Rotich: the 6-foot-tall Nukuri Johnson, who finished 31st in the 2012 Olympic Games Marathon, and the diminutive 5-foot-2 Stublic &nbsp;who was born in Connecticut, ran collegiately in the US at Columbia University but who is the Croatian record holder in the 3000m Steeplechase, 5000m, Half Marathon and Marathon.Stublić and Nukuri-Johnson continued to close and pulled even with Rotich in the 10th mile. Both Stublic and Nukuri-Johnson then made a push for the lead but neither was unable to drop Rotich. Stublic then began to fade during the 12th mile but eventually finished third in a national record 1:09:18. Rotich and Nukuri-Johnson ran shoulder to shoulder until the runners made their way down through the Battery Park underpass onto FDR Drive, where Rotich pulled away for good.“When I took off, I knew it's not over until it's over,” said Rotich. “So when they came, I was like, ‘Yeah, I was waiting for this.’ So I just got back together a little bit. I saw they didn't pass me, so I knew, ‘Oh, I just have to sit with them and see what happens in the finish.”Nukuri-Johnson, who finished second in a national record 1:09:12, was pleased with her performance even though she was unable to employ the kick she had worked on during the indoor track season.“I didn't quite catch her, but we started out a little slower compared to her, and we just kind of got closer and closer,” said Nukuri-Johnson. “We started running together for a couple of miles. Then she pulled away once we got in the tunnel. I thought I was going to outkick her in the end, but then she pulled away. I don't know. I did everything I could.”Joe Battaglia for the IAAFLeading resultsMen 1. Wilson Kipsang &nbsp;(KEN) 1:01:02 2. Daniele Meucci (ITA) 1:01:06 3. Dathan Ritzenhein (USA) 1:01:10 4. Leonard Korir (KEN) 1:01:19 5. Juan Luis Barrios (MEX) 1:01:21 6. Sam Chelanga, (KEN) 1:01:26 7. Stephen Sambu (KEN) 1:01:34 8. Julius Arile (KEN) 1:01:38 9. Jason Hartmann (USA) 1:01:52 10. Kenta Murayama (JPN) 1:02:02 Women 1. Caroline Rotich (KEN) 1:09:09 2. Diane Nukuri-Johnson (BDI) 1:09:12 NR 3. Lisa Stublic (CRO) 1:09:18 NR 4. Sabriina Mockenhaupt, (GER) 1:09:42 5. Lyudmila Kovalenko (UKR) 1:09:43 6. Madai Perez (MEX) 1:10:27 7. Yolanda Caballero (COL) 1:10:30 NR, AR 8. Tomomi Tanaka (JPN) 1:10:31 9. Stephanie Rothstein Bruce (USA) 1:10:53 10. Sara Moreira (POR) 1:11:03

Wilson Kipsang gives high octane performance at chilly NYC Half 

When you start a high-performance car on a cold winter’s morning, it usually takes a few minutes for the engine to prime and the same could be said for Kenya’s Wilson Kipsang at the NYC Half Marathon on Sunday (17).