News Archive

This year’s London Marathon was rated as a dress rehearsal for the

Olympic Games in August since the field was so strong. But in the end there was

a triumph for a runner who was not nominated by the Kenyan federation for the

Olympic Games’ marathon. Evans Rutto stormed into the finish of

Buckingham Palace clocking a world class time of 2:06:18. So this was an

extraordinary triumph for the group of Kenyan runners to which Uta Pippig

belongs as well. All of them are coached by Dieter Hogen. The women’s

race saw a great winning time as well. Margaret Okayo (Kenya) clocked a world

leading 2:22:35.

It was about ten years ago when Dieter Hogen started working with Kenyan

marathon runners. He cooperated with the late manager Kim McDonald. His

athletes were successful already in the 90ies, when for example Sammy Lelei won

the Berlin Marathon in 1995, Lameck Aguta took the Boston Marathon title in

1997 and Ondoro Osoro triumphed in Chicago in 1998. During the last twelve

months Hogen had intensified his work with the Kenyans. He spent several months

during the year coaching a group of about eight athletes in either Kenya or

Boulder (US).

It was already in autumn last year when the work started paying off: Evans

Rutto won his very first marathon race in Chicago and clocked the fastest debut

time ever (2:05:50). So Rutto was 45 seconds faster than Haile Gebrselassie

(Ethiopia) in London 2002. Now he ran only his second marathon and won again.

But while he was not nominated by the Kenyan federation for the Olympic

marathon in Athens second placed Sammy Korir was. Korir clocked 2:06:48 in

London on Sunday. He still is the second fastest marathon runner ever, having

run 2:04:56 in last year’s Berlin Marathon.

"5" />“It is a great feeling to be the champion of the London Marathon. I

expected to be stronger than Sammy Korir”, Evans Rutto said. He added:

“But the rain was not good. The weather stopped me from running

faster.” But there was a fright on the way to victory. Because at 35 k

Evans Rutto slipped on the wet surface when he had to run around a tight

corner. He awfully fall on the stone surface and Sammy Korir, who was running

next to him, fell on the ground as well because Rutto slipped into him. World

Champion Jaouad Gharib (Morocco), who was third in the end clocking 2:07:02,

also slipped at this point of the course. It was careless by the organisers not

to have secured this stretch.

With his knees being bloody Rutto continued and soon increased the pace to

leave behind Sammy Korir. Instead of the Olympic Marathon Evans Rutto will now

prepare for the Chicago Marathon in October. But first he will travel back to

Kenya for a rest. It had been Rutto who pushed the pace after half way

(pacemakers led the first group through in 63:10 minutes). Together with his

training partner John Yuda (Tansania) they ran away from the field and it was

only Sammy Korir who was able to follow them. Yuda was then unlucky because he

got a muscle problem and finally finished only ninth in 2:10:13.

Kenyas running legend Kip Keino (right) and IAAF President Lamine Diack

congratulate the winners of the London Marathon, Evans Rutto and Margaret Okayo

(left)

Having nominated Margaret Okayo for the Olympic Marathon Kenya can expect a

very good performance from her in Athens. After winning Boston and New York

before the 27 year-old now ran London for the first time and won again. Okayo

could become a serious rival for Paula Radcliffe in the Olympic marathon.

“I don’t expect that I will be able to beat Paula, but I will try

it”, Okayo said. Radcliffe, who had run a sensational world record last

year in London (2:15:25), had decided some time ago not to run the London

Marathon this year. Instead she prefers a long term preparation for Athens.

Still Paula Radcliffe was in Lodon on Sunday, cheering on her brother who ran

the race.

“My aim was to run fast but I couldn’t run as fast as I wanted

because of the weather”, Margaret Okayo said. She was running her own

race right from the start. And she was indeed running fast during the first few

miles. Her split times even suggested a sub 2:20 result. But then she slowed

and Romanian Constantina Tomescu-Dita, who finally came in third in 2:26:52,

passed her. But Okayo came back into the race and passed the Romanian. In the

end she was well in front of second placed Ludmila Petrowa (Russia/2:26:02).

“I did not pay attention to what Constantina Dita was running”,

Okayo later said.

Results, London Marathon:

Men: 1. Evans Rutto (Kenya) 2:06:18, 2. Sammy Korir (Kenya) 2:06:48, 3.

Jaouad Gharib (Marocco) 2:07:02, 4. Stefano Baldini (Italy) 2:08:37, 5. Tesfaye

Tola (Ethiopia) 2:09:07, 6. Benoit Zwierzchiewski (France) 2:09:35, 7.

Abdelkader El Mouaziz (Marocco) 2:09:42, 8. Lee Troop (Australia) 2:09:58, 9.

John Yuda (Tansania) 2:10:13, 10. Joseph Kadon (Kenya) 2:11:30.

Women: 1. Margaret Okayo (Kenya) 2:22:35, 2. Ludmila Petrowa (Russia)

2:26:02, 3. Constantina Tomescu-Dita (Romania) 2:26:52, 4. Albina Iwanowa

(Russia) 2:27:25, 5. Joyce Chepchumba (Kenya) 2:28:01, 6. Swetlana Sacharowa

(Russia) 2:28:10, 7. Sun Yingjie (China) 2:28:32, 8. Alina Iwanowa (Russia)

2:28:48, 9. Swetlana Demidenko (Russia) 2:33:06, 10. Tracey Morris (Great

Britain) 2:33:52.