Kebede triumphs in London Marathon
Source: Agencies |
April 26, 2010, Monday
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TSEGAYE Kebede of Ethiopia won the London Marathon for the first time yesterday to end a six-year winning streak for Kenyan runners, while Liliya Shobukhova led home a Russian one-two in the women's race.
The 23-year-old Kebede improved on last year's second-place finish by running the 42.2-kilometer race in 2 hours, 5 minutes, 19 seconds - more than a minute ahead of Emmanuel Mutai of Kenya. Jaouad Gharib of Morocco was third.
Kebede finished second to Olympic gold medalist Sammy Wanjiru of Kenya last year.
The 32-year-old Shobukhova made it two marathon victories out of three as she became the first Russian woman to prevail in London, holding off compatriot Inga Abitova.
After leading for much of the race in wet conditions, Shobukhova broke away with two kilometers to go to finish in 2:22:00 to add to her victory in Chicago in October and improve on her third-place finish in London last year.
Aselefech Mergia of Ethiopia was third.
In Philadelphia, triple Olympic and world champion Usain Bolt's stirring anchor leg led Jamaica to the year's fastest 4x100 meters relay of 37.90 seconds at the Penn Relays on Saturday.
Fastest anchor
The gold-and-green clad Bolt blasted through the final 100 meters in an electronically timed 8.79 seconds, one of the fastest anchor legs ever, as the Jamaicans crushed two American teams to delight thousands of their cheering countrymen in the sold-out stadium.
"I told the guys to make sure I didn't have to work, because I really didn't want to do much," Bolt, who outran American Ivory Williams, laughingly told reporters.
"I got the baton pretty much in front, so I wasn't really worried about anything else."
Williams' USA Blue finished second in 38.33 and USA Red was third in 38.50.
The world record in the event is 37.10 seconds, set by a Bolt and Asafa Powell-led team at the 2008 Olympics. Powell anchored that team in 8.73 seconds.
The crowd of 54,310 was so loud cheering for Bolt, US sprinter Miki Barber thought, "Is the President here?"
Mario Forsythe, Yohan Blake and Marvin Anderson, all Bolt's Racers Track Club teammates, comprised the first three legs of Saturday's team.
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