Kipkorir and Kimais triumph in Parague
Kenyan athletes dominated in the men’s and women’s categories during the Prague Half Marathon at the World Athletics Elite Label road race held in the Czech Republic on Saturday.
Roncer Kipkorir Konga and Irine Jepchumba Kimais won in 59:43 and 1:06:00 respectively.
Kipkorir finished first ahead of Uganda’s Maxwell Rotich (1:00:06 ) as another Kenyan, Geoffrey Kimutai, came in third in 1:00:11. Six men ran alongside the pacemaker as they passed through 10km in 28:03 with Konga ahead of the pack.
Konga then slightly upped the pace and managed to open up a gap on what had now become the chase pack, reaching 15km in 41:51 with a nine-second lead.
He extended the gap in the final kilometers and managed to finish the race timing 59:43, despite him taking a wrong turn towards the end.
“It’s definitely a great result for me, I felt good on the course,” said Konga, who was just five seconds shy of his PB.
“I’m very happy for a time under an hour. The wrong turn slowed me down, I could have run faster, maybe some five seconds. The wind was also a problem and slowed me down a little bit,” he added.
Kimais crossed the finish line ahead of fellow Kenyan, Janeth Chepngetich (1:06:42) and Ethiopia’s Zeray Bezabh (1:07:15) who finished in second and third positions respectively. The 24-year-old admitted that the pacemakers had greatly aided her on her way to victory.
“The pacemakers helped a lot in this fight for victory and I am so happy that I won. The course was good although there were certain stages that I struggled with,” Kimais said.
In February, she timed a personal best of 1:04:37 to win the women’s race at the Barcelona Half Marathon in Spain.
