City Mayors: London Marathon

FRONT PAGE
SiteSearch
About us
Directories

London Olympics: Legacy
2012 Olympics: East London
Impact of 2012 Olympics
How London won the 2012 Olympics
2012 Olympics: The popular vote
2010 Winter Olympics

Mayors from The Americas, Europe. Asia, Australia and Africa are competing for the annual World Mayor Award. More

City Mayors ranks the world’s largest as well as richest cities and urban areas. It also ranks the cities in individual countries, and provides a list of the capital cities of some 200 sovereign countries. More

City Mayors reports political events, analyses the issues and depicts the main players. More

City Mayors describes and explains the structures and workings of local government in Europe, The Americas, Asia, Australia and Africa. More

City Mayors profiles city leaders from around the world and questions them about their achievements, policies and aims. More

City Mayors deals with economic and investment issues affecting towns and cities. More

City Mayors reports on how business developments impact on cities and examines cooperation between cities and the private sector. More

City Mayors describes and explains financial issues affecting local government. More

City Mayors lists and features urban events, conferences and conventions aimed at urban decision makers and those with an interst in cities worldwide. More

City Mayors reports urban environmental developments and examines the challenges faced by cities worldwide. More

City Mayors reports on and discusses urban development issues in developed and developing countries. More

City Mayors reports on developments in urban society and behaviour and reviews relevant research. More

City Mayors deals with urban transport issues in developed and developing countries and features the world’s greatest metro systems. More

City Mayors examines education issues and policies affecting children and adults in urban areas. More

City Mayors investigates health issues affecting urban areas with an emphasis on health in cities in developing countries. More

City Mayors examines the importance of urban tourism to city economies. More

City Mayors examines the contributions history and culture make to urban society and environment. More

City Mayors describes the history, architecture and politics of the greatest city halls in the world. More

City Mayors invites readers to write short stories about people in cities around the world. More

City Mayors questions those who govern the world’s cities and talks to men and women who contribute to urban society and environment. More

City Mayors profiles national and international organisations representing cities as well as those dealing with urban issues. More

City Mayors reports on major national and international sporting events and their impact on cities. More

City Mayors lists cities and city organisations, profiles individual mayors and provides information on hundreds of urban events. More

This is an archived article, published in April 2004
Kenyan runners celebrate first
ever double in London Marathon
By Graham Cunningham, Sports Editor

The Flora London Marathon has proved itself to be a worldwide phenomenon by attracting an unprecedented number of nationalities to compete in 2004. On 18 April 2004, more than 32,000 runners from 54 countries took part.

European countries dominated the list as you would expect. Behind the UK came France with an impressive 422 participants, followed by Germany with 345 runners. The US broke the European mould with 303 runners entered, but Italy took fifth place with 279. Other countries which had more than 100 entrants included Ireland, the Netherlands and Sweden.

Competitors came from far and wide to compete. Japan had 41 runners present, but China and Korea only managed four between them. The antipodeans were well represented too with 89 South Africans, 43 Australians and 34 New Zealanders running, although a number of those are based in London. Venezuela, Tibet, Mongolia and Bermuda are just some of the other far-reaching countries to have had a presence in the race.

For the first time ever there was a Kenyan double in the Flora London Marathon with Evans Rutto an impressive winner of the men's race and Margaret Okayo decisively taking the women's event.

Evans Rutto cruised to victory in two hours, six minutes and 18 seconds. It is the second fastest time in the world this year, but as quick as it was it hardly did the Kenyan credit for the weather conditions, with a blustery wind, were difficult and, along with several of the athletes, he took a slithering fall on the rain-swept roadway by the Tower of London. "If the weather had been better and I had not fallen, well, I'm not saying that I could have broken the world record, but it's possible.” he said.

There were some redoubtable athletes in the men's race, including the world champion Jaouad Gharib,the Olympic champion, Gezahegne Abera and Kenya's Sammy Korir, who became the second-fastest marathon runner ever when he paced Paul Tergat to a world record of two hours four minutes and 55 seconds in Berlin last year and hung on to his illustrious compatriot's coat-tails to finish just a second behind. Nevertheless, the inexperienced Evans Rutto was generally considered the race favourite, based on his performance in Chicago in October 2003. The Kenyan won in a time of two hours five minutes and 50 seconds, a record for a debut marathon.

The drama came early in the men's race with the withdrawal of Abera as the lead pack approached the six-mile mark. Gezahegne Abera, carrying an achilles injury to his left leg dropped out and stood abjectly by the roadside. His defection left 18 runners in the pack and, until the halfway mark, that number was slowly whittled down.

Only in the second half did Rutto firmly put his imprint on the race, and the pace increased considerably. The fastest mile was the seventeenth - unusually late for London which has such a fast start - and by that stage only three athletes were in contention, Rutto, Korir and Gharib.

Rutto was pouring on the pace now and Gharib soon fell away from the slipstream. Korir was also under pressure as the two Kenyans turned on to the pathway by the Tower of London. It was on the turn that Rutto fell, sliding so far that he took Korir, who had been five metres behind, with him as well. The time lost while they regained their feet and composure made it the slowest mile of the race, five minutes and nine seconds.

The rest belonged to Rutto, the 26-year-old having no trouble at all in detaching himself from Korir, to come home 30 seconds clear. It was an exceptional show of distance running, but the Kenyan officials believe they can do without Rutto in Athens since he has so far not been selected for their Olympic team.

Korir stayed on for second place in a time of two hours six minutes and 48 seconds, while Gharib was third in two hours, seven minutes and two seconds. The Moroccan had only just recovered from a bout of bronchitis, and like the Kenyans had also fallen, so given the circumstances was more than happy with his performance.

The women's race was run in three stages; the first belonged to Kenyan Margaret Okayo, the second to Romanian Constantina Tomescu-Dita, and the third to Okayo again.

The Kenyan let loose early. In the third mile, with the wind assisting more than hampering, the diminutive Okayo ran the first and only sub-five minute mile and was away and gone. In the next two miles, with the pace only fractions slower, Okayo extended her lead. Was the pattern set in the last two marathons - one runner dominant throughout - about to be repeated?

The answer came sooner than expected. After three more miles Okayo's action changed just marginally, with her upper body rolling slightly, and her pace slowing. The Kenyan was not about to emulate Paula Radcliffe. Rather, she was struggling to stay in front and the woman who was now eating into that lead was the Romanian.

There could be no greater contrast in styles than between these two athletes. Okayo, who stands five foot tall in her running shoes, has a beautifully balanced leg action and almost tiptoes through her races. If she was running upstairs, you wouldn't hear her. You would hear Tomescu-Dita all right. She does not have a delicate action; long-striding, arms wide-swinging, it's power rather than precision.

So, when Tomescu-Dita duly overtook Okayo in the 11th mile of the race, it was such an emphatic dismissal, and the rest of the field was so distant, that the race director, Dave Bedford, was surely brushing up his Romanian for the presentation. It was not, though, all it seemed.

Firstly, Okayo is not an athlete prone to self-doubt. In her last three marathons the 27-year-old Kenyan has broken three course records, most recently in New York last November. Secondly, Tomescu-Dita has made a habit of leading major marathons without ever winning one. Notably, in the last two world championship marathons, at Edmonton and Paris. In Canada, her lead was over two minutes, before she fell apart. You couldn't help but feel sympathy as the same story unfolded.

Although the Romanian's lead stretched to over 100m at one point, Okayo was never completely out of touch. The Kenyan sensibly took her time to get her rhythm back and started to erode the lead. For a while it was a matter of two steps forward and one step back - as the lead contracted then extended. Not until the 20th mile were all the steps going forward. Coming into the tunnel that takes the runners out of London's Docklands, Okayo drew alongside Tomescu-Dita and swept past.

It was over; all that mattered now for Okayo was the clock. Having belted out the first five miles in 25:51, an average of 5:10, Okayo had now reined in the pace. Each of her last six miles was outside 5:30. Her finishing time was two hours 22 minutes and 35 seconds, still the fastest time in the world this year, but it didn't compare with Radcliffe's feats of the past two Flora London Marathon races. "I can't say I'll beat Radcliffe in the Olympics, but I'll try," said Okayo who, like Rutto, thought the weather militated against running faster.

Poor Tomescu-Dita couldn't hang on to second position, Russian Lyudmila Petrova picked her off to take the runners-up spot in two hours 26 minutes and two seconds, over three and a half minutes behind Okayo, with the Romanian finishing another 55 seconds behind. Of the other contenders, Ethiopia's Gete Wami pulled out with hamstring problems and China's Sun Yingjie was a slightly disappointing seventh in two hours 28 minutes and 32 seconds. Joyce Chepchumba, though, who has also not been picked by Kenya for the Athens Olympic team, placed fifth in two hours 28 minutes and one second to register her 18th successive sub 2:30 marathon.