Mark Kiptoo second on marathon debut
Mark Kiptoo (KEN) narrowly fell short of making the perfect debut as he finished second in the Frankfurt Marathon.
Despite blustery conditions and some indifferent pacemaking Kiptoo crossed the line in 2:06.16, an age best for a 37 year old and the 15th fastest debut marathon. Despite his inexperience over the distance it was Kiptoo who spent much of the race at the head of the field as slowly the lead group was whittled down to two. Kiptoo still led only 50m from the line until fellow Kenyan Vincent Kipruto just edged him out of the victory. Kiptoo can take much confidence from this performance and in better conditions is sure he can go quicker still.
Despite the forecast of the worse storm to hit the UK in over 20 years, 24,000 runners still toed the line for the Great South Run, the worlds largest 10 mile race. Emmanuel Bett (KEN) was the man who was strongest on the day and he broke away with just over 3 miles remaining to take the victory in 48:02. Such was the strength of the wind the mile splits for the last two miles were closer to 6 minutes than 5!
Thomas Ayeko (UGA) and Chris Thompson (GBR) were not able to repeat their exploits from Birmingham the previous weekend but both still performed strongly to finish 3rd and 6th respectively.
Article Tags: Chris Thompson, Emmanuel Bett, Mark Kiptoo, Thomas Ayeko