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said afterwards. “There were still
three with me and no one was
prepared to help. So I decided to
wait. I dropped back and planned
to go again with 1km to go”.
When it came, the ferocity of his
attack left the others stranded.
Tadese surged down the slope into
the Piazza 1 Maggio with a clear
lead and 500m to run. Patrick
Makau launched an attack at 300m
that saw him rapidly close down
the gap. Tadese, sensing the danger,
responded to Makau and to the
crowd of 200 or so jubilantly
waving green, red and blue Eritrean
flags from Udine’s Castle Hill.
Tadese joined an exclusive group of
sub-59 minute performers over the
distance and became only the second
man, after Paul Tergat, to defend his
title. World record holder Wanjiru,
in his debut for Kenya, had raced to
the front at the start but then
struggled. Running with a knee
injury, the fast early pace took its
toll. A distant eighth and 18 seconds
behind at 10km, he eventually
crossed the line 51st, clocking
1:03:31. A total of 17 runners
bettered 61 minutes. Despite
Tadese’s individual win the Kenyan
team managed to overcome the team
challenge from the Eritreans by a
slender 14-second margin.
Back in the fast lane
Holland's Lornah Kiplagat bested her performance of last year at the same
Championships in Debrecen (HUN) to improve her 20km World record to
1:02:57. She went on to complete the half marathon distance in 1:06:25,
beating Elana Meyer's 1999 figures from the Tokyo Half Marathon by 19
seconds.
Yet only three months earlier
everything had looked very different
for the 33 year old Kenyan-born
road running champion, as a leg
injury had forced her out of the
London 10km and prevented her
from competing in the World
Championships in Athletics.
“I never panicked when I got injured
but it was my coach and husband
Pieter Langerhorst who gave me the
confidence to go for it. I had doubts
but he reassured me and without that
I would not have had the faith to
have run so well today.”
Kiplagat led from the start but at
about 8km Kenya's Mary Keitany
had the temerity to challenge her
and pulled ahead to lead by a few
seconds. Kiplagat was slow to
respond but gathered her strength.
They were together at 10km, passing
through in 33:10 and she pushed
ahead from about 13km. It took her
a while to shake off the tenacious
Keitany, who was still only three
seconds down at 15km. Thereafter
Kiplagat gradually pulled away to a
23-second win, which could have
been more but for celebrations
before the finish line. “I realised the
record was possible with 4km to go”
she said afterwards. Keitany finished
just outside the old record in
1:06:48, improving the Kenyan
national record by a single second.
Pamela Chepchumba ran a personal
best for the bronze medal and along
with Everline Kimwei in 6th place
ensured an emphatic team victory
for Kenya. In fourth place Bezunesh
Bekele lowered Berhane Adere's
Ethiopian national record by 10
seconds and of the top 20 finishers,
17 recorded personal bests.
14 Distance Running January – March 2008