Official 2012 RAK Half Thread

Keitany is 31:09 for 10km. That's 65:43 for half-pace.

Dennis Kipruto Koech - a supposed 17 years old Kenyan - 61:30 pb. is now way out in front in the men's race 40:40 in.

He's got this thing in the bag.

Kipruto may target Geoffrey Kipsang Junior All Time Best (59:31) since he was born "officially" in 1994. But it may be too high.

He was 9th at the kenyan Junior XC championship last year. He also ran 61:30 at altitude for HM and 28:30 for 10K. He is a XC specialist over the local circuit back in Kenya.

around 45:50 at 16K

1:00:40 for the win, second some 3 sec behind

meh

1:06:50 for Keitany

Happy wrote:

What a great feed. The coverage of the race is excellent, and I'm really enjoying the music being played in between bouts of commentary.

In the beginning was a little off with the sound but once I put it on full screen, it worked well. Enjoyed it. Thanks to Let's Run for the live feed!

Not sure what to think about Keitany's 66:49. On one hand, she's slightly faster than expected, but on the other hand, she appears to have not learned her lesson post-NYC. The go-big-or-go-home mentality can work sometimes, but seems unnecessarily risky if she ends up employing it in the Olympics since she should be the favorite in any type of race.

Keitany should run Lisbon half marathon instead of Rak. Mary's supposed to do Portugal and Lisbon Half double. Rak Half win was boring.

Mary needs to be face stronger competitors. Georgina and Feyse are boring competitors. London Marathon 2012 field is average. Some big names are missing from london.

rojo wrote:

The start was classic ONe of the best one's I've ever seen. The elites were bunched between a gate and there was no gun. They just counted down 5-4-3-2-1 but since there was no gun, the elites didn't know what to do. They stood there and didn't start until about 6-7 seconds were on the clock.

Let's hope they subtract that time at the end.

I saw it too. It is not legal to subtract the time just because everybody stood around after the clocks started. Official time is official time. Reporting the chip times as the official results is NOT legal.

rojo wrote:

The start was classic ONe of the best one's I've ever seen. The elites were bunched between a gate and there was no gun. They just counted down 5-4-3-2-1 but since there was no gun, the elites didn't know what to do. They stood there and didn't start until about 6-7 seconds were on the clock.

Let's hope they subtract that time at the end.

Looking at the video feed when Mary crossed the line, the clock appeared to read 1:06:49 and that is what is written here in the IAAF race report:

But in the IAAF top lists, she appears to be credited with a time of 1:06:42, so a 5 second adjustment has been applied.

Meanwhile the letsrun race report lists her time as 1:06:42 and then suggests a further 6-8 seconds should be subtracted...

Hopefully people can agree on the correct answer soon, but someone needs to have a word with the RAK Half Marathon race organisers and tell them that if they can't manage the race start a little better, in what was otherwise a fine race, their IAAF gold label status might be at risk.

Sorry, that should be a 7 second adjustment applied by the IAAF when you compare the top lists with the race report.

Race report from IAAF:

Results of RAK Half Marathon 2012

Men

1. Dennis Kipruto Koech (KEN) 1:00:40

2. Azmeraw Bekele (ETH) 1:00:49

3. Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich (KEN) 1:01:01

4. Bernard Kipyego (KEN) 1:01:29

5. Feyisa Lelisa (ETH) 1:01:52

6. Fabiano Joseph (TAN) 1:02:00

7. Kiplimo Kimutai (KEN) 1:02:03

8. Levy Matebo Omari (KEN) 1:02:15

9. Joseph Maregu (KEN) 1:02:31

10. Tsegaye Kebede (ETH) 1:02:34

Women

1. Mary Keitany (KEN) 1:06:49

2. Georgina Rono (KEN) 1:09:13

3. Gladys Cherono (KEN) 1:09:14

4. Feysa Tadese (ETH) 1:09:15

5. Hilda Kibet (KEN) 1:11:15

6. Caroline Cheptanui Kilel (KEN) 1:11:21

7. Rose Chelimo (KEN) 1:11:31

8. Feheriwat Goshu (ETH) 1:12:57

9. Serena Burla (USA) 1:13:43

10. Dehininet Demsew (ETH) 1:15:14

Top lists:

Men

http://www.iaaf.org/statistics/toplists/inout=o/age=n/season=2012/sex=M/all=n/legal=A/disc=HMAR/detail.html

Women

http://www.iaaf.org/statistics/toplists/inout=o/age=n/season=2012/sex=W/all=n/legal=A/disc=HMAR/detail.html

But even that isn't consistent...

Koech (KEN) 1:00:40 -> in top list 1:00:34 (6 seconds)

Keitany (KEN) 1:06:49 -> in top list 1:06:42 (7 seconds)

Are they using chip times in the top lists?