BIRMINGHAM, England
Ugandan youngster Victor Kiplangat put up a brilliant performance to win the men's marathon gold at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Saturday.
Kiplangat struck gold in
2:10:55 ahead of Tanzania's Felix Simbu, while Kenya's late entrant into the
field, Michael Githae, completed a 1-2-3 sweep of the medals by the three East
African neighbours.
Kiplangat's exploits made him
the first Ugandan to win the Commonwealth Games gold in the marathon.
Simbu settled for silver in
2:12:29 as Githae went for bronze in 2:13:16.
It was Kenya’s first medal at
the 2022 "Club" Games. Githae and compatriot Jonathan Korir had
stayed with the leading pack of six until the 30km when Kiplangat and Simbu
dropped them.
Liam Adama from Australia, who
hit the front early to go through 5 kilometres in 15 minutes and 42 seconds as
the pack of Githae, Simbu, Kiplangat and another Tanzanian Athumani Misai gave
chase.
The pack closed down on Adams
as the Australian led by a second through 10km in 31:06 and by four second at
15km in 46:03.
Adams and the pack of six hit
the 20km in 1:01:08 with the Australian occasionally teasing his rivals with
some bursts of speed.
They cruised past the halfway
mark in 1:04:34 and 25km in 1:17:01 with Adams sticking to the lead by a second
on both occasions.
Kiplangat, the Ugandan, sprung
to the front after the water station right after the 25km mark pulling Simbu
and Githae along as the other three dropped.
Kiplangat, Githae and Simbu
exchanged the leads for a moment before the other pack joined them right after
the 27km.
Then the race started to curve
when Kiplangat broke away after the 29km with Simbu in pursuit to hit the 30km
mark in 1:32:45. Githae and Korir dropped 17 seconds off the pace.
Kiplangat would show Simbu a
clean pair of heels with 10km to go hitting the 35km in 1:47:09 with Simbu
falling 18 seconds off the pace as Githae followed one minute and 25 seconds in
bronze medal position.
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