Running: Cheruiyot wins Ottawa marathon - again

Monday, May 26, 2008 - 06:23 PM

Kenyan's time short two minutes to beat course record

OTTAWA - For about the first 30 kilometres of Sunday's 42.2-kilometre marathon of Ottawa Race Weekend, a group of nine elite runners stuck together like glue, handed off cups of water to each other at the water stations and looked like an inseparable band of brothers.

With about five kilometres to go, they disbanded into a lead pack of three and, with about three kilometres left, they were down to two - defending champions David Cheruiyot of Kenya and Molla Solomon of Ethiopia.

"My strategy was to stay behind that guy. Then when I got close to the finish line, start to sprint," said Cheruiyot.

And sprint he did, with about 150 metres to go, and won his third Ottawa Marathon in four years, in two hours 11 minutes, five seconds better than Solomon. Cheruiyot set a course record last year at 2:10:33 and was hoping to better that this year but fell short.

"I'm happy with the win but not for the course record. Our time at 30K wasn't very good. We should have been at 1:31 but instead we were at 1:33 so it wasn't a very good time," he said.

So while the veteran Cheruiyot was adding another jewel to his crown, the women's winner, along with the top Canadian male and female, were all competing in their first marathons. It wasn't beginner's luck.

Asmae Leghazoui of Morocco was the first woman to complete the race, finishing with a course record of 2:28:44. She was followed by Russian Elza Kireeva in 2:33:46.

"It was a big surprise for me, but I'm very happy," said Leghazoui, who holds the eight-kilometre world record.

Canadian Lioudmila Kortchaguina, who had won the past two races and three of the past four, and also held the old course record of 2:29:42 set in 2006, pulled herself out of the race yesterday morning with a stress fracture in her hip area.

The top Canadian woman was Tara Quinn-Smith of Toronto, who placed fourth with a time of 2:33:59 that qualifies her to be on the Canadian World Cup team that will compete in Berlin, but not for the Beijing Olympics.

"I'm a little tired and my legs definitely feel the pounding, but I'm definitely happy with my debut," said Quinn-Smith.

"I went in with the ambition of just seeing how I could do and see if I could get somewhere close to the B standard but, this being my first race, I'm very happy."

Giitah Macharia, who is from the Congo but now lives in Burlington after receiving his Canadian citizenship in January, was the top Canadian with a time of 2:16:55.


Matt McInnes, a radiologist with the Ottawa Hospital was the second Canadian four seconds later. Both needed a time of better than 2:14 in order to qualify for the Summer Olympics in Beijing.

"I was trying to get the standard but that was kind of hard," said Macharia. "It was my first marathon and I know I can get it down to 2:10 probably next year, so I'm happy about it."

McInnes was really looking forward to Beijing, but the fact that he shattered his personal best of 2:17:39 had him smiling.

"2:14 was kind of a dream scenario, but I ran a personal best and I really laid it out there and ran as hard as I could and I couldn't ask for much more than that," said McInnes, who also took advantage of the event to raise $3,000 for the Ottawa Hospital.

"I took about 40 seconds off my personal best so it feels great. It was a nice day, the crowd support was amazing and the race director put together an amazing field."

In the half-marathon, Terry Gehl of St. Charles, Que. was the top male with a time of 1:11: 23. Gatineau's Marie Danais was the top woman, finishing in 1:19:51.