Kenya's Amos Kipruto Wins London Marathon Title
Kenyan Amos Kipruto won his maiden London Marathon title with a time of two hours, four minutes and 39 seconds on Sunday.
The 30-year-old world bronze medalist defeated Ethiopia’s Leul Gebresilase, who crossed the line 33 seconds later, with Bashir Abdi of Belgium claiming bronze in 2:05:19.
In the women’s race, debutant Yalemzerf Yehualaw of Ethiopia claimed her first World Marathon Major title in 2:17:26 despite taking a hard fall in the second half of the race.
The 23-year-old finished ahead of defending London Marathon champion Joyciline Jepkosgei from Kenya, who bagged silver in 2:18:07, while Alemu Megertu of Ethiopia completed the podium in 2:18:32.
A total of six women ran under 2:20, including Judith Korir of Kenya (2:18:43), Joan Melly of Romania (2:19:27), and Ashete Bekere of Ethiopia (2:19:30).
This year, there is a total prize purse of $313,000, with $55,000 each (Sh7.5 million) for the men’s and women’s winners, according to Runner’s World.
Comments (2)
The lone ranger done it.Congrats to team Kenya.Keep on flying high the ,black red, and green,with a shield in the middle.
It is great to see these athletes make descent money for their efforts.However, not every body sees it that way.Like they say,the about the golden rule,"whoever has the GOLD makes the rules. The rewards for WMM( World marathon majors) has been slashed to $50,000 from $500,000 afew year ago.$500,000 is what the late Wanjiru ,KIpchoge, brigid...ect got for winning the marathon majors.From today, the winner will get only $50,000.Wow,what a drop. There have been myriad of reasons given for the slashing,but what got most of may attention was that a good number of the winners who are mostly africans,especially from east africa, do not rend themselves to good interviews, hence they are not popular with spectators.And this does not help promoting the majors.
The idea of marathon majors was copied from tennis majors,with the hope that the best would run against the best.Unfortunately this did not happen, rarely do the best run in same marathons.
Anyway, this makes me wonder if these marathon majors were dominated by wazungu,would this have happened?I say this mindful that east african dominance of long distance running has in the last lead some countries burning international athletes in their events.Last year Nigerians complained about Kenyans winning their marathon and taking to Kenya "bucketful of Naira".
Is east african dominance in distance running causing uneasiness in some quarters? Something to think about as we celebrate.Any comments?
Very true maxiley ..its not worth to win a major marathon and win $50,000.in london, the $50,000 will be taxed and take would be like $ 35,000. Then once back to kenya another tax and will end up taking home about 20,000$ or less coz of agent fees.
For kipchoge I hope nike gives him at least $100,000 a year otherwise would rather retire