In the race that saw world and Olympic 5- and 10,000-meter champion Mo Farah make his much-anticipated marathon debut, world marathon recordholder Wilson Kipsang and two-time world champion Edna Kiplagat emerged victorious in the Kenyan-dominated Virgin London Marathon, Sun., April 13.

Kipsang, 32, won his second London Marathon title in a course record 2:04:29 (he set the world record of 2:03:23 in Berlin last year), putting in a surge with just over a mile to go to break away from his countrymen Stanley Biwott, 28, who finished 26 seconds back in 2:04:55.

Ethiopia’s Tsegaye Kebede, 27, last year’s London champion, was third in 2:06:30, outsprinting his countrymen Ayele Abshero, 25, who finished fourth in 2:06:31. The fifth-place finisher, in 2:08:06, was Tsegaye Mekkonen, the young Ethiopian who won the Dubai International Marathon, Jan. 24, in a world junior best of 2:04:32.

On Sunday, Kipsang and Biwott had run together after surging away from a leading group of eight some two-thirds of the way through the race. Kipsang would then surge again to pull away from Biwott with just over a mile to go.

“It’s really great to win the London Marathon again,” the rail-thin, perpetually happy Kipsang said later (he also won in 2012). “It was around 31 kilometers that I decided to push harder as I felt very comfortable and strong. I pushed again towards the finish line and that’s when I broke away.”

Despite the smile on his face over the closing stretch, which made his victory look easy, Kipsang admitted later he was hurting. So why the smile?

He explained, “What I can say is, when you’re running you find that despite the fact you are feeling pain, if you try to show the physical appearance of happiness, you find this generation of energy within your body. So, even if you are feeling a lot of pain, try to feel happy.”

Mo Farah, 31, was never in contention after falling behind almost from the start, but he gutted it out to finish eighth in 2:08:21, which was 52 seconds off the British record of 2:07:13, set by Steve Jones in 1985.

“I will be back,” said Farah, who’s from Britain (and that nation’s greatest running hero), but now lives and trains in Portland, Ore., where he’s coached by Alberto Salazar. “I’m not going to finish (my plans regarding the marathon) like this. I gave it my all but I’m disappointed I didn’t go out there and give what the crowd deserved.

“It was pretty tough. I’m quite disappointed but you try things and if they don’t work, at least you gave it a go. I missed one drink station but (the problem) was really just the pace – I should have gone with the front group. The pacemakers were slightly ahead of me but you learn – life goes on.”

Of course, a 2:08:31 marathon debut is no mean accomplishment. Yet there are those who wonder why the world’s preeminent 5- and 10,000-meter runner is even bothering with the marathon. British distance great Brendan Foster, a TV commentator for Sunday’s race, urged Farah to stick to the track and defend his track gold medals at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janiero.

However, Steve Jones himself, who’s now a coach in Boulder, Colo. and holds the British record that Mo Farah was hoping to break on Sunday, was highly supportive and appreciative of Farah’s performance. Jones said, “As a debut performance it was extremely good. He is a class act and the greatest distance runner this country has ever produced.

 “It is an honor to still have my record seeing as how Mo stated that was his target. But I think he coped pretty well considering it was his first marathon.”

The first American to finish the Virgin London Marathon was Ryan Vail, who ran a personal best 2:10:56 to place 10^th. The quiet-spoken runner, who’s 28 and lives in Portland, Ore., had previously run 2:12:43 in the 2012 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, a 2:11:45 in Fukuoka, Japan later that year, and a 2:13:23 in last year’s New York City Marathon, where he was also the first American. His preparation for the London Marathon had gone so well (he put in three 150-mile weeks in his 13-week buildup for the race), he thought a sub-2:10 was entirely possible.

The women’s race in the London Marathon was a very tight affair as Edna Kiplagat, 35, won her first London title (she had been second the last two years) by outkicking her countrywoman and namesake Florence Kiplagat, 27, in the final 200 meters to win by a mere three seconds in 2:20:21. The two women are not related.

Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba, 29, making her marathon debut, as was Mo Farah, during a glittering track career which is still ongoing, finished third in 2:20:35, only 14 seconds behind the winner.   

Dibaba, the Olympic and world 10,000-meter champion, looked like she was going to challenge the two Kenyans after the three of them had broken away from the field, but disaster struck the Ethiopian at the 30K fluid station when she dropped her water bottle and stopped dead in her tracks to pick it up. The two Kenyans immediately bolted and within moments Dibaba was out of contention. The moral of the story: Sportsmanship – or is it sportswomanship? – isn’t what it used to be and don’t drop your doggone water bottle!

The Kiplagats would stay close together until the final bend 200 meters from the finish line when Edna sprinted ahead to victory.

 “I felt very strong so I wasn’t too worried,” she said of the close finish.

In Dibaba’s case, third place isn’t what she came and ran all this way for, but nevertheless a 2:20:35 is an impressive marathon debut. Afterwards she told reporters that she planned to continue running on the track but definitely would run the marathon again.

“Yes, of course I plan to go back to the track,” Dibaba said through an interpreter. “But I’m going to try a marathon again because I don’t like to be second or third. I have to be first all the time. I want to be first in the marathon, too.”

Now there is an ambitious runner! Sort of reminds you of that Michael Douglas line in the movie, Wall Street: “Greed is good!” 

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