Bangkok, ThailandThe Thai capital witnessed another coup on the early hours of Sunday (26 Nov) as elite marathoners from Ethiopia and Kenya - the undisputed land of endurance – conquered the podium of the Standard Chartered Bangkok Marathon.
Ethiopia’s Berhanu Tesfaye led the assault at the 19th edition of the competition which started at an unusual time of 2:00am when the aspirants set to run on the streets of temple town. The elite runners however had a separate starting time of 3:30am as they set to run from Sanam Chai Road alongside the Grand Palace.
Tesfaye outclassed pre-race favourite John Cheboi (KEN), 2:28:02 to 2:28:11. Cheboi, the defending champion, had won two titles in Bangkok back to back in 2004 and 2005.
Peter Kiprono Raburu (KEN) came in third in 2:28:19. The field included another Kenyan, Michael Mukoma, three-time winner here as well as the champions of 2003 (Rik Ceulemans of Belgium) and 2002 (Jason Mayeroff of USA).
Wioletta Uryga of Poland, who set a course record in 1999, once again proved her mettle by winning the women's event in a modest time of 2:56:47 well ahead of locals Sunisa Pechpongproi Sailomyen (2:58:48) and Patcharee Chaithongsri (3:01:17).
The winners were presented with a cash prize of 300,000 Bahts each while the second and third place finishers received 150,000 and 75,000 respectively apart from individual age-group prizes, which was 12,000 bahts in case of the two winners (toalling 312,000 each for Tesfaye and Uryga).
Ram. Murali Krishnan for the IAAF
For full results please click here
