Upsets galore at blustery London Marathon

In a shock defeat of defending champion and world marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge, Ethiopia’s Shura Kitata took the honours at the Virgin Money London Marathon, ahead of Kenya’s Vincent Kipchumba while Bridget Kosgei retained her rock-steady composure to take the women’s in cold, blustery conditions on Sunday (October 4).

In the women’s marathon, which kicked off the event, Kenyan world record holder Bridget Kosgei raced to a convincing victory, even though it was well outside her personal best. South Africa’s Gerda Steyn fought the testing conditions to come within 16 seconds of the South African national marathon record, held by Colleen de Reuck. Steyn raced to 7^th position amongst the world’s top runners in a personal best time of 2 hrs 26 min 51 sec.

The men’s marathon, which followed immediately after the women’s, saw defending champion, world marathon champion and record holder, Eliud Kipchoge, suffer a rare defeat as Ethiopian marathoner Shura Kitata, outsprinted Kenyan Vincent Kipchumba to win by a second in 2 hr 05 min 41sec.  Kipchoge placed 8^th, just over a minute behind the leader.

South African Elroy Gelant had his hopes of a national record dashed when he was forced to withdraw from the race after 25 km, while fellow South African, Melikhaya Frans, dipped under 2 hr 14 min for the first time in his career, clocking 2:13:50 for 21^st position, but missing an Olympic qualifying time.

“I had picked up an injury to my lower back in the last eight days before the race when I was doing some strides for my tapering period,” Gelant explained. “I received medical treatment which had appeared to resolve the problem, but unfortunately the pain returned and I could not continue. After three months of solid training, it’s frustrating to miss out on this opportunity, but that’s the nature of the sport.”

For the second time in just over a year, Steyn has come within seconds of a long-standing distance record after falling just 53 seconds short of Frith van der Merwe’s 31 year old Two Oceans Marathon record of 3:30:39 last April. But there is little doubt that many, if not all, the times set decades ago by athletes of the calibre of Elana Van Zyl Meyer, Colleen de Reuck and Frith van der Merwe will be threatened, if not eclipsed, before Steyn’s career is done.

Cold, wet and windy conditions prevailed throughout the race, which took place on a 2.15km circuit around St James Park, thwarting the attempts on both world records. Kosgei finished almost two minutes adrift of her 2:17:01 London mark and close to five minutes outside her best ever and all-comers world record of 2:14:04, while Kitata was more than four minutes outside Kipchoge’s world best.

“The weather certainly affected us,” admitted Kosgei after crossing the line on The Mall in 2:18:58. “There was wind and rain, and the cold got to me.  My body never warmed up and in the end it was difficult to get to the finish. Had the conditions been better, I’m sure we could have run close to the record. The course is fast.”

Under the circumstances, Steyn’s run was more than impressive. She was content to stay back in the early stages, running in 20^th position at half way, before moving up in the second half as many of the athletes struggled in the testing conditions.  She pulled back three more positions in the final two laps, racing past Kenyan Valary Jemeli and Australian Sinead Diver to finish 7^th.

“Overall it went well,” said Steyn shortly before boarding a flight back home. “To finish 7^th in a personal best time are two reasons to celebrate. But I’m gutted at missing out on the record by just a few seconds.

“I told myself before the race that rain should not slow down my speed, but it certainly did nothing to make it faster!  The conditions were really quite tough and a lot of athletes were slowing down in the second half.

“But I’m proud of myself for giving it everything.  I left nothing out there, and even if I did slow down towards the end, I was still picking up places in the race. I can’t say anything other than I’m pleased – I knew exactly what I had to run and what the splits were. It was just impossible to go any faster.”

American Sara Hall surprised by overtaking the world champion, Ruth Chepngetich, just 400 metres from the finish to claim second position in 2:22:01.

Natasha Cockram won the British title in 2:33:19 – an indication of the quality of Steyn’s performance, which will be a significance confidence-booster ahead of next year’s Tokyo Olympics. Cape Town resident and former winner of the Cape Town Marathon, Tish Jones, was fourth British athlete home in 2:36:25.