Running News Daily

Former Africa cross country champion Leonard Barsoton ready for challenge as he debuts marathon in Boston

Leonard Barsoton is targeting an upset win at next month's Boston Marathon when he comes up against the big names in the road races.

Barsoton will be debuting in the full marathon after specialising in the 10,000m and the half marathon and believes he is more than equipped to cross the finish line first on October 11.

"It is not all about big names at the starting line-up but the level of preparedness. I have been training and I am still training for the race,” Barsoton said.

He added: "I have decided to venture into marathon because my body is fit enough for the big challenge. My preparation is good and I am taking one step at a time to ensure I get top position in a race on my marathon debut."

The former African 10,000m silver medalist said a win at the World Majors' race, which is one of the most competitive worldwide, will provide him with more impetus for the upcoming World Championships in Oregon, where he is also eyeing the top gong.

"My target is to win the Boston marathon, which will be my ticket for World championships. As much as I am making my debut, it will not be as easy,” the Iten-based runner said.

If he is to pull off a shock win, the world cross country junior silver medalist will have to take his performance to another level, having encountered mixed fortunes in the half marathon thus far.

In Boston, he will be up against compatriots, former Toronto Marathon champion Benson Kipruto, three- time Amsterdam marathon champion and Wilson Chebet.

Others are Felix Kipkoech, Felix Kiprotich, two-time Paris marathon champion Paul Lonyangata, former world marathon champion Geoffrey Kirui and David Bett, who will also be making his debut.

An assault of Wilson Kipsang's course record on tap at the 75th edition of the Lake Biwa Marathon

An assault of Wilson Kipsang's 2:06:13 course record from 2011 is on tap at the 75th edition of the Lake Biwa Marathon, a World Athletics Gold Label road race, in Otsu, Japan, on Sunday.

Three sub-2:06 and two sub-2:07 runners are in the line-up. Four of those have career bests faster than Kipsang's nine-year-old record. All of those performances came in 2019, suggesting that quartet is on top of their game.

The fastest in the field is Evan Chebet who clocked 2:05:00 in winning last year's Buenos Aires Marathon. Chebet has also produced sub-2:06 runs in Valencia, Berlin and Seoul and also finished fourth in the Tokyo Marathon with 2:06:42.

The next fastest is Filex Chemonges who broke the Ugandan national record with a 2:05:12 performance in Toronto last year. He has run three marathons and each time improved his personal best.

Felix Kiprotich, the third fastest in the field, won the 2019 Daegu Marathon with 2:05:33, and also has three more sub-2:07 runs to his credit. Samuel Ndungu, the Lake Biwa winner in 2015, improved his personal best to 2:06:02 in Lisbon last year. The final sub-2:07 man in the field is Dutch national record holder Abdi Nageeye who improved clocked 2:06:17 in Rotterdam, also last year.

Former winners joining Ndungu are 2018 champion Joseph Ndirangu and 2019 winner Salah Bounasar. Other contenders include Stephen Mokoka who was third in 2019 in 2:07:58, the second-best time of his career.

The race also serves as the final chance for Japanese men to win a spot on the Olympic Marathon team. To secure their spot, a runner must run faster than the 2:05:29 national record set last week by Suguru Osako.

The fastest among the five invited Japanese runners is Yuki Kawauchi, with a lifetime best of 2:08:14. Other high-profile Japanese include Takuya Noguchi, with a 2:08:59 best; Kohei Ogino, who's clocked 2:09:36; Shohei Otsuka, a 2:10:12 man; and Kengo Suzuki, who has a 2:10:21 best.

Valencia Marathon has a solid elite field in its quest to become one of the World’s Top five fastest marathon circuits

The Valencia Marathon Trinidad Alfonso EDP 2019 will feature the best elite field never seen before in a Spanish trial. The aim is to put the Valencia Marathon among the world’s Top 5 fastest circuits. To achieve this, a minute needs to be shaved off the Men’s current world record of 2 hours 04:31, which will once more make the race the fastest marathon in Spain.

To achieve this, there are three key male contenders: the man who set the circuit record in 2018, the Ethiopian athlete Leul Gebresilase (2 hours 04:02) and especially his fellow-countrymen Getaneh Molla (2 hours 03:34) and Herpesa Negasa (2 hours 03:40). The time set by Molla in Dubai in January established that marathon as the world’s third fastest circuit.

One should also keep an eye on the Kenyan runner Emmanuel Saina (2 hours 05:02), who in seven months between 2018 and April 2019 ran the distance in under 2 hours 06:00 on no fewer than three occasions.

Furthermore, the line-up features twelve runners with times of under 2 hours 06:00, and 22 runners with times of under 2 hours 10, including Tsegaye Kebede (2 hours 04:38), Norbert Kigen (2 hours 05:13), and Felix Kiprotich (2 hours 05:33).

Among them will be the Kenyan runner Gideon Kipketer (2:05:51), an athlete who regularly runs in under 2 hours 06, and who was the pace-setter for Geoffrey Kamworor in Copenhagen in the INEOS 1 hour 59 Challenge; and the Eritrean Ghirmay Gebreselassie, winner in the marathon world championship, and who came first in the New York Marathon in 2016.

The duel for the European Marathon Record between the Turk Kaan Kigen Ozbilen (2:05:27) (who is just 16 seconds off the record time) and the Norwegian Sondre Moen (2:05:48) (just 37 seconds short of the mark) promises to be especially thrilling. Moen knows the circuit well given that he has run in earlier editions of the Valencia Half-Marathon.

Course records smashed Sunday morning at the Sydney Marathon

Felix Kiprotich and Stellah Barsosio have smashed the men's and women's marathon course records at the Sydney Running Festival.

Pre-race favorite Kiprotich took almost a minute and a half off the men's record, becoming the first person to break 2:10 for the Sydney Marathon with a winning time of 2:09:49 as he breasted the tape at the Sydney Opera House forecourt. 

In a quick race in perfect conditions, second placed Michael Kunyuga and Japan's third-place finisher Saturo Sasaki also ran under the previous course record of 2:11:18, set by Gebo Burka in 2014. 

Last year's winner Elijah Kemboi finished fourth in 2:13:55 - 42 seconds faster than his victorious time in 2018. 

The women's record fell by even more, with Barsosio finishing alone in 2:24:33, which was good enough for eighth place overall.

That's an incredible 3:33 faster than the previous record (2:28:06), set by Makda Harun in 2017.

Second placed woman Josephine Chepkoech also run under the previous record, finishing in 2:26:43, while the third placed woman - Tejitu Chalchissa - finished in 2:28:22.

In the half marathon, Ryota Komori won in 1:05:00, beating Thomas Do Canto by 32 seconds.

Belinda Martin won the women's half in 1:14:50, ahead of Rebecca Lowe in 1:17:04 and Karinna Fyfe in 1:18:09.

Sydney marathon organizers are determined to see the course records go when this year’s race is run on Sunday

The IAAF Gold Label road race, centerpiece of the mass participation Sydney Running Festival that has attracted almost 40,000 entrants, is not as fast as some courses, but any road course in Australia’s biggest city boasting one of the world’s iconic harbors, must be a compromise between aesthetics and degree of difficulty.

Nonetheless, organizers are confident the course records – 2:11:18 by Ethiopia’s Gebo Gameda Burka in 2014 and 2:28:04 by Ethiopian-born Australian resident Makda Harun Haji in 2017 – can be substantially improved. They have assembled a field and will provide the pacing to make that happen in this year’s race.

Australian 10,000m record holder Ben St. Lawrence will spearhead the pacers endeavoring to pilot the leading male runners through the first 25km on pace to break the men’s record. Corresponding assistance should see the leading women – including Harun Haji – through half-way on the required pace.

“We want to see the records broken this year,” race director Wayne Larden said on Friday, “and we think we have the depth in both fields for that to happen.”

Felix Kiprotich looks the pick of the men’s field. The 30-year-old Kenyan runner comes with strong current form. He recorded his personal best – 2:05:33 – in winning Korea’s Daegu marathon this April, so he is fast and in a winning mood. He also brings consistency, having four sub-2:07 times on his c.v.

Kiprotich has bettered 2:07 in four of the past five years and ran sub-2:08 in the only year he did not. He is also familiar with the region, his best performances all coming in Asia.

Elijah Kemboi won last year’s Sydney race by over two minutes in 2:13:33. Before last year he had run sub-2:10 for the previous six years. Besides his win in Sydney, he was second in Linz and won in Macao, so his consistency remains at a high level. Another Kenyan, Kiprotich Kirui, has bettered 2:10 each of the past three years including a 2:09:05 for third place in Madrid earlier this year.

Japanese runners have a good recent record in Sydney, despite usually not arriving with the strongest credentials among the elite runners. Satoru Sasaki was third in the always-strong Fukuoka marathon in 2015 in his PB 2:08:56 and finished eighth there last year in 2:11:40. He and younger compatriot Ryo Kuchimachi – 2:13:30 in Tokyo this year – will bear watching.

Kenyan duo Stellah Barsosio and Josephine Chepkoech head the elite athletes in the women’s field.

Each comes with strong recent form. Barsosio was second in this year’s Rotterdam marathon in her fastest career performance of 2:23:36. The 26-year-old was fifth in Paris the previous year and also boasts a half-marathon best of 1:09:31.

Chepkoech, 30, is a little faster than her compatriot over the half distance, with a best of 1:08:53. That dates back to 2013, however, but her 2:25:20 performance in the Barcelona marathon earlier this year suggests she remains a strong contender.

Harun Haji holds the race record set in 2017, the second time in succession she triumped in Sydney. In both victories, she broke away in Centennial Park significantly before the half-way point where the tree cover and bends in the road make it relatively easy to “disappear” from the chasers. She does not have compelling domestic form coming into the race, but it will be interesting to see whether she, or any of her rivals, adopt similar tactics.

Ethiopian pair Hirut Alemayehu and Gebeyanesh Ayele will also be in the hunt. Ayele has a personal best of 2:26:54 from Hengshui just one year ago, while Alemayehu’s best is 2:30:09. Both have half-marathon bests of just over 70 minutes, so need to be respected.

Tejita Daba, Bahrain, and Bornes Kitur, third in Osaka this year and with a 2:24:19 PB from Prague last year, are also more than capable of winning in a very even women’s field.

Joshua Kipkorir wins in style at the Singapore Marathon today

Kenya’s Joshua Kipkorir took the top honors at the 36th edition of the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon that was held on Sunday (9) in Singapore, Malaysia. Kipkorir who carried a personal best of 2:09.50 that he got at the 2017 Mumbai Marathon where he was finished insecond place upset big names that included race favourite Paul Lonyangata, the winner of the last two Paris Marathons, but he did not even feature in the top 20.

The 24 year-old took charge of the lead group by the halfway mark and opened up a 300m gap on the chasing pack and it was a lead he never relinquished. The 2016 and 2014 Nairobi marathon led 1-2-3 Kenyan podium finish as he to cut the tape in 2:12.20.

“This is my first time here. I like the course, it’s very nice. I have no problems with the heat,” said Kipkorir.

He was followed by 2016 winner, Felix Kirwa of 2:13.43 with Andrew Kimutai closing the first three podium finishes in 2:14.29. Cosmas Matolo and Felix Kiprotich finished in fourth and fifth place in 2:16.06 and 2:16.28 respectively.