Victor Kiplangat is the first Uganda man to win the Commonwealth Games marathon gold medal

Victor Kiplangat became the first man from Uganda to win the Commonwealth Games marathon on Saturday morning (30) after he dominated the race to win the title in a time of 2:10:55 with incredible reception at Birmingham 2022.

The 22-year-old went the wrong way late in the race, but his lead was so big, that his victory wasn’t compromised as he was able to follow the directions of a very attentive official and get back on the course.

Alphonce Felix Simbu of Tanzania finished second with a time of 2:12:29 with the bronze medal going to Michael Mugo Githae of Kenya who ran 2:13:16.

Meanwhile, Liam Adams of Australia, who led the race for most of the early going ran well, in the end, to collect fourth at 2:13:23 and Jonathan Kipleting Korir of Kenya rounded out the top five with a time of 2:14:06.

Englishman Jonathan Mellor crossed the finish line in sixth place at 2:15:31.

On a nice and overcast morning, Simbu ran smooth and composed in the early part of the race as he tracked Adams, who went through the first 20km at 1:01:08 and 1:04:34 for the half-marathon.

However, they were not alone as four other runners followed him closely, much to the delight of the group of fans who came out on the streets to watch the race, take pictures, and also cheer on the athletes as they navigate the race course.

The group of six was split into a group of three at about 26km when Simbu, Kiplangat and Githae broke away for about 2km before the pace slowed back down and the pack became six again.

Kiplangat then injected another surge in the middle of the contest to break up the pack significantly, but he was stalked all the way Simbu, who did all he could to stay with the pace.

After 30km, Kiplangat led with a split of 1:32:45 with Simbu right there with him at 1:32:46.

However, just when you thought it was going to be a two men’s close encounter, Kiplangat injected another big and decisive surge in the race pace to open up a gap between himself and Simbu to take complete control of the contest as he moved past the 35km at 1:47:09 with a lead of 0.18 seconds over his Tanzanian rival.

The race was never close afterward as the Ugandan runner went on to dominate –building a lead of well over two minutes after 40km.

posted Saturday July 30th
by Symone Goss