Patient Edna Kiplagat Is Rewarded As She Becomes First Woman To Ever Defend World Marathon Title

By David Monti @d9monti
(c) 2013 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved. Quick Takes added by LetsRun.com.

MOSCOW (10-Aug) — At the 10-kilometer mark of women’s marathon here
at the 14th IAAF World Championships today, defending world champion
Edna Kiplagat was running in 15th position, 29 seconds behind the
leader, Italy’s Valeria Straneo.  Defying the hot and humid
conditions, the Italian record holder had hit the 10-K mark in 34:12,
a 2:24:30 pace, with seven other women close behind.  Kiplagat seemed
unresponsive.

“I just wanted to let my body relax a bit and prepare my mind,” said
the soft-spoken Kenyan.  She continued: “I wanted to get to know about
the course.”

By the time the event was over, the 33 year-old athlete more than knew
the three-loop course by the Moscow River: she had mastered it.
Displaying the patience and confidence of a true champion, she slowly
caught the lead group while Straneo, like a tiny locomotive, continued
to keep the pace honest.  Kiplagat didn’t know then that it would come
down to just she and the Italian in the final kilometers and that she
would prevail in 2:25:44, becoming the first woman ever to
successfully defend a world marathon title.  It was harder than she
thought.

“My body was tired from the start,” Kiplagat admitted.  “When we
started the race, it did not react immediately so I had to start
running slowly.” She added: “It was hard for me.”

Kiplagat didn’t join the lead group of Straneo, Ethiopia’s Meselech
Melkamu and Feyese Tadesse, Kenya’s Valentine Kipketer and Lucy Kabuu,
China’s Jia Chaofeng, and Japan’s Kayoko Fukushi until 15 kilometers.
At that point, Straneo was content to lead, saying that she was
feeling good and that the hot weather didn’t bother her.

“Because I just did my pace,” Straneo told reporters.  “I felt
comfortable at this pace.  So I just run; I didn’t care about the
other girls.”  She added: “I was happy today it was warm because I run
well in warm weather.”

Straneo kept each 5-kilometer segment well under 18 minutes, and
slowly the pack melted away behind her.  By halfway (1:12:58), the
lead pack was six, then dwindled to just four by 25-K (1:26:36):
Straneo, Melkamu, Kiplagat and Fukushi.  The medals would come from
this group, but who would win them?  Fukushi said she wasn’t worried
about that, at least not yet.

Click for Women’s Marathon Photo Gallery

“I just tried to enjoy myself,” she said through a translator.  “I
just thought about enjoying the race.”

Between 30 and 35 kilometers, Straneo and Kiplagat dropped Melkamu,
who was quickly overtaken by Fukushi who –without knowing it at the
moment– had locked in the bronze medal.  Ahead of her, Straneo ran
stride for stride with Kiplagat until 40 kilometers (2:18:22).
Straneo thought she was dreaming.

“I couldn’t believe it because I just turned behind at 35 kilometers
and just saw one girl,” Straneo recounted.  “I can’t believe it.”

Just steps beyond the 40-K point, Kiplagat surged and Straneo had no
answer.  The Italian knew immediately that she was running for second.

“I expected that Edna would pull away,” Straneo said.  “My legs hurt
so bad, so I keep my pace.  I couldn’t change my pace.”

Kiplagat glided into Luzhniki Stadium alone and soaked up the applause
of the modest-sized crowd.  She raised her arms as she broke the tape
and ran into the history books.  Straneo clocked 2:25:58, and Fukushi
2:27:45.

“It was hard because the effort was not easy and I know everybody was
going for a medal,” Kiplagat concluded.  “They knew the defending
champion was coming.”

Well behind on time (2:36:12), but still in ninth place, American
Deena Kastor ran what she said may be her final high-level marathon, and
her first in a World Championships.  The 2004 Olympic bronze medalist
said she gave it her all, but the head and humidity were just too
much.

“It was a torture,” said the always-gracious Kastor, 40.  She
continued: “It was a hard race out there.  I felt like I was trying to
get those negative thoughts out, so it was a lot of mental work out
there”

In all 46 women finished, but 23 more dropped out.

More by LetsRun.com beloq- quick takes and results.

Quick Take #1: You can listen to an LRC post-race audio interview of Kastor here. In it, she was asked, “Did we just see your last high level marathon?”

She replied, “I’d hate to make an emotional decision but I think that was my last one. It was just a real struggle out there. It was really hard to stay at it that long. I felt like it was a pep talk from 5k on and usually you give yourself that pep talk the last 5k. It was a mental struggle the whole way.”

If this is her last marathon, Kastor has had a great career. An Olympic bronze, an American record and wins in Chicago and London. Not too shabby.

(We’ve also got a video interview here).

QT #2: We hope she does take some time because it was brutally hot out this afternoon when the marathon was run, roughly 28-29 Celsius which is 82-84 degrees but that’s in the shade and they were being baked in the sun.

QT #3: There were two other Americans in the race. The Hansons-Brooks Dorothy ‘Dot’ McMahan accomplished her pre-race goal of top 20 by placing 18th in 2:39:52.

Jeannette Faber, who came in seeded 41st, was happy with her finish but she mistakenly thought she’d finished 19th and not 23rd in 2:44:03. We doubt the truth changes too much for her as she said she was focused on finishing higher than her seed (41st) and also said it was great to finish near her place the Olympic Trials last year (21st).

We have a video interview with McMahan here. We have as audio interview with Faber here.

	POS	BIB	ATHLETE	COUNTRY	MARK
	1	565	Edna Ngeringwony Kiplagat	KEN	2:25:44
	2	501	Valeria Straneo	ITA	2:25:58	SB
	3	533	Kayoko Fukushi	JPN	2:27:45
	4	535	Ryoko Kizaki	JPN	2:31:28
	5	308	Alessandra Aguilar	ESP	2:32:38
	6	497	Emma Quaglia	ITA	2:34:16	SB
	7	609	Madaí Pérez	MEX	2:34:23	SB
	8	679	Hye-Gyong Kim	PRK	2:35:49
	9	924	Deena Kastor	USA	2:36:12	SB
	10	397	Susan Partridge	GBR	2:36:24
	11	128	Jessica Trengove	AUS	2:37:11	SB
	12	591	Diana Lobacevske	LTU	2:37:48
	13	339	Aberu Kebede	ETH	2:38:04
	14	680	Hye-Song Kim	PRK	2:38:28
	15	189	Lishan Dula	BRN	2:38:47	SB
	16	400	Sonia Samuels	GBR	2:39:03	SB
	17	682	Yong-Sun Sin	PRK	2:39:22
	18	932	Dorothy McMahan	USA	2:39:52	SB
	19	226	Changqin Ding	CHN	2:40:13
	20	588	Zivilé Balciünaité	LTU	2:41:09	SB
	21	741	Albina Mayorova	RUS	2:41:19
	22	739	Nadezdha Leonteva	RUS	2:42:49
	23	904	Jeannette Faber	USA	2:44:03	SB
	24	561	Lucy Wangui Kabuu	KEN	2:44:06	SB
	25	614	Alina Armas	NAM	2:45:09
	26	711	Alevtina Biktimirova	RUS	2:45:11
	27	709	Tatyana Aryasova	RUS	2:45:27
	28	248	Xiaojie Wei	CHN	2:46:46
	29	440	Kalliópi Astropekáki	GRE	2:47:12
	30	590	Remalda Kergytè	LTU	2:47:30
	31	852	Kateryna Karmanenko	UKR	2:48:18	SB
	32	575	Seongeun Kim	KOR	2:48:46
	33	371	Carmen Oliveras	FRA	2:48:58
	34	225	Mojie Cao	CHN	2:49:15
	35	802	Renate Wyss	SUI	2:50:41
	36	105	Karina Córdoba	ARG	2:51:07	SB
	37	645	Mary Davies	NZL	2:51:24	SB
	38	572	Iuliia Andreeva	KGZ	2:53:16
	39	256	Erika Abril	COL	2:55:13
	40	125	Lauren Shelley	AUS	2:55:40	SB
	41	107	Karina Neipán	ARG	2:56:02	SB
	42	701	Tanith Maxwell	RSA	2:56:37	SB
	43	962	Zuleima Amaya	VEN	2:58:22
	44	213	Lanni Marchant	CAN	3:01:54	SB
	45	114	Nicole Chapple	AUS	3:05:49
	46	777	Daneja Grandovec	SLO	3:10:46	SB
		307	Nebiat Habtemariam	ERI	DQ
		469	Maria McCambridge	IRL	DNF
		211	Krista Duchene	CAN	DNF
		618	Beata Naigambo	NAM	DNF
		617	Helalia Johannes	NAM	DNF
		613	Sladana Perunovic	MNE	DNF
		840	Sultan Haydar	TUR	DNF
		842	Ümmü Kiraz	TUR	DNF
		341	Meselech Melkamu	ETH	DNF
		336	Tiki Gelana	ETH	DNF
		538	Mizuki Noguchi	JPN	DNF
		338	Meseret Hailu	ETH	DNF
		612	Otgonbayar Luvsanlundeg	MGL	DNF
		115	Jane Fardell	AUS	DNF
		230	Chaofeng Jia	CHN	DNF
		964	Yolymar Pineda	VEN	DNF
		223	Erika Olivera	CHI	DNF
		229	Yinli He	CHN	DNF
		615	Leena Ekandjo	NAM	DNF
		564	Valentine Jepkorir Kipketer	KEN	DNF
		108	María Peralta	ARG	DNF
		344	Feyse Tadese	ETH	DNF
		681	Mi-Gyong Kim	PRK	DNF
		824	Yu-Hsuan Chen	TPE	DNF
		792	Patricia Morceli Bühler	SUI	DNS
		303	Rosa Chacha	ECU	DNS