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By:
HARRISON MAINA | |||||||||||||||
| Posted:
Apr,25-2016 12:33:19
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Ethiopia's epic marathon runners swept both men and women podiums at Monday's Boston marathon, leaving traditional arch-rivals Kenya shocked to the core, with many Kenyan runners blaming lack of team work for the poor performance.
21 year old Berhanu Hayle from Ethiopia the men's division crossing the tape at 2.12: 45, still well below Kenya's Boston marathon record time of 2.03.02 set by Geoffrey Mutai in 2011. Hayle was closely followed to the finish line fellow countrymen, Lesisa Desisa (second) and Tsegay Adhane (third) while their female counterpart, Atsede Baysa took the women's title followed by yet another Ethiopian, Tirfi Tsegaye. Kenya's Joyce Chepkirui finished third to become the best placed Kenyan at the world's oldest and most historic race now in its 120th year. Hayle, the men's division winner, took home $150,000 prize money, while Baysa took home an equal amount as the male champion for winning the women's division.
While Kenyan women have won every Boston marathon title since 2011 except for the 2016 edition, their male counterparts have been on a lengthy, four year drought, ever since Wesley Korir won in 2012. "The Boston marathon unlike other races is very difficult and unpredictable. We tried our best but the Ethiopians were too many. They knew each other well since they train under one coach and therefore they ran as a team, taking turns to tire us out," said Wilson Korir, the Boston marathon 2012 champion who finished fourth on Monday to become Kenya's best placed male runner. "For us Kenyans, it's like everyone for himself. We train individually and everyone has a different agent, so we did not know each other well until we came to Boston. If you look at the Ethiopians, they train train under one coach and therefore it's very hard to beat them," he added while congratulating the Ethiopian runners during an interview with Ajabu Africa News. The Ethiopians seemed to have figured Kenya's Achilles' heel during Boston marathon races, fearing their own runners more than the Kenyans.
According to post race comments reported by James O'Brien reporting for the BAA, the Ethiopian elite runners ran together as a pack with Hayle closely watching Desisa, the defending Champion's every move throughout the course. "If Desisa did nothing, so did Hayle. It seemed the field was keying off the defending champion," Obrien reported while adding that the duo's closeness was so obvious that they even exchanged water at some point in the race. "I was scared of Desisa. I only watched what he did. I came only to win the race, not to run fast," said the Hayle, the eventual winner, according to the BAA reporter. Wesley Korir added that he hoped Kenya would come up with a structure to ensure marathon runners train under the same coach if they wanted to find a formula to beat highly competitive Ethiopians at future Marathons. "I am happy I won. Thank you Boston," said an elated Hayle, Ethiopia's new Boston Marathon champion.
However, despite the failure to feature at the podium in this year's edition, several Kenyan runners still featured in the top ten? Among them was Paul Lonyangata who in finished 5th, after Korir, followed closely by Sammy Kitwara at number 6 and Stephen Chebogut at number 7. On the women's side, Valentine Kipketer finished 5th, and Cheyech Flomena Daniel crossed the line number 6 to complete Kenya's elite female presence. Ethiopia had a total of 8 female runners finishing in the top 15 positions compared to Kenya's three, while on the men's division, five Ethiopian runners finished in top 15 compared to Kenya's four. Interestingly, Uganda had two runners among the top 15 who finished the 2016 Boston marathon--with Jackson Kiprop coming at number 14 and Harbert Okuti, who lives in New York, at number 15. Kenya's Caroline Rotich, the 2015 women's race defending champion pulled out of the race early with due to a leg injury that developed after several miles of starting. "Caroline could not finish the race. She had to pull out due to a leg injury. We will be doing an MRI on Wednesday to determine the actual problem for treatment to begin," said Dr. Isaiah Okwiya, Kilel's Kenyan born agent based in Maryland.
Four-time Boston marathon champion, Catherine Ndereba said that the Kenyan team needs to go back to the drawing board to find out what has gone wrong leading to the dismal performance recently in world oldest marathon. "They should go back and find out if there is something that needs to be changed, maybe the training needs to be looked at. At least we had one of our women finish third today. We hope our runners can come back and win here next year," she told Ajabu Africa. However, Ndereba congratulated the Ethiopian runners for the sterling performance as well as other Kenyans who finished in several the top ten positions. 9 Kenyan members of Parliament that make up the Bunge (Parliament) Sports club who had been slated to attend the marathon did not make it from Nairobi Kenya due to what the group leader, Hon. Agostino Neto, MP for Ndiwa referred to as "late processing of travel arrangements." And in a clear depature from the tradition before the 2013 bomb blast at the Boston marathon finish line, only a handful of Kenyan fans from the local community showed up. Many fans interviwed by Ajabu Africa News prior to the race declined to attend, expressing fear of another attack. However, the few fans who attedned monday's marathon said that the attack fears were unreasonable and hundrens of fans should come back to the finsh line next year since the security had been beefed up significantly. "These days every single person coming to the finish line is checked out for weapons.The Boston marathon is now definetely more safer than before.Kenyan fans need to come back in big numbers and help support our runners as we have fun with others," said a fan who requested anonymity. The sentiment was also echoed by the 2012 defending champion,Wesley Korir who thanked fans that showed up and urged others to keep coming in subsequent events.
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Source:
AJABU AFRICA NEWS
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