Evans Rutto wins the London Marathon (© Getty Images)
Evans Rutto took a boat trip along the River Thames yesterday to get from the London Marathon finish back to his hotel, and as he stepped onto dry land again he was within a stone’s throw of the spot where his marathon dreams almost went crashing.
The official race hotel is on the marathon course around the 22-mile point, not far from where Rutto tripped over a security barrier yesterday before sliding right across the soaking wet road and taking fellow Kenyan Sammy Korir down with him.
Both were hurt as they crashed to the ground, but with third placed Jaouad Gharib – the World champion – also falling around the same spot a minute later, their lead remained intact and it turned out to be a two-way battle for victory.
Rutto won that battle and in doing so made it two wins out of two at the distance. He is the reigning champion of Chicago and London, two of the greatest marathons in the world, but he will not be at the Olympics unless the Kenyan federation change their team … which wouldn’t be the first time that has happened.
Rutto could have embarrassed the Kenyan Federation had he run a more spectacular time yesterday, and for that he blames the weather. Even aside from his fall, which left him with cuts to his knees, he says: “The weather meant we could not run as fast as we wanted to. I know I was in shape to go faster. I am not saying I would have broken the World record in better conditions, but I could certainly have challenged it.”
Rutto, who was born and lives in Marakwet, turned 26 earlier this month. His father Kilimo Yano was a 29-minute 10,000m runner who once raced against the legendary Kip Keino, but Rutto is much faster with a best over that distance of 27:21.32.
Ironically, he felt he was too slow on the track so switched his attention to the roads in 2001. He ran a personal best of 60:30 for third in the Lisbon Half-Marathon and later that year made the Kenyan team for the World Half Marathon Championships in Bristol, England where he finished sixth.
Among those ahead of him that day was Tanzanian John Yuda, one of his training partners in Iten and Boulder, where he finds the trails to his liking. He has run consistently well on the US road circuit, but it was his marathon debut in October that really raised a few eyebrows.
Although he had a fine pedigree, including fifth in the 1999 World Cross Country Championships, his stunning second half in 62:16 gave him a 400m victory in the fastest marathon debut in history, 2:05:50. Yesterday he was just 28 seconds outside that time, and given the weather and his fall that was a fine run.
Again he ran negative splits – a very even-paced 63:10 and 63:08 – but it was his injection of pace around 15 miles, and including a 17th mile of 4:35, that finally split the large lead pack. He said: “It is a great thing to be the champion of the London Marathon, but it is a shame the weather denied us the chance to go for a faster time.
“In my first marathon in Chicago, the pace for the first half was too slow so I could probably have gone even quicker. I promised myself my second marathon would see something very special, but the weather meant a really fast time was not possible.
“I hurt myself very badly when Sammy and I fell. It was an accident, just one of those things that happen, but I tried to ignore the pain and carry on with trying to win the race. I felt I was stronger than Sammy so I always felt I could win the race, but it would have been nice to run faster.”
