Kenyans Leonard Barsoton and Joyciline Jepkosgei won Bix 7 on saturday

You can count Leonard Barsoton among those who was surprised at the way the Quad-City Times Bix 7 unfolded Saturday.

Barsoton came into the race with fairly modest expectations, hoping that maybe he could somehow sneak into the top three finishers. The 24-year-old native of Kenya didn’t really expect to leave all the other runners in his wake in the final two miles to win the 45th annual race through the streets of Davenport fairly easily.

But that’s what he did.

The race is over and the winners of the 2019 Quad City Times Bix 7 Road Race have been crowned.

"I’m so excited to be able to do this," Barsoton said. "If you can win Bix, you can win anywhere."

Thousands of runners hit the Davenport streets in the morning of Saturday, July 27th, but only a few could take home the victory in the 7-mile race.

In the men's race, Kenyan runner Leonard Barsoton broke a tight race and soared ahead to win with a time of 32:34. "This has shown me I can do more," Barsoton said. "To win Bix is a big accomplishment. This is a tough course." 

The women's race saw Joyciline Jepkosgei, also from Kenya, break a close two-person competition late in the game to take the gold in just over 36 minutes.

posted Monday July 29th