Stephen Kiprotich Validates His Olympic Title With A World Title; Lelisa Desisa Proves He’s A Star With Silver

Kiprotich Credits Haile Gebrselassie For Helping Inspire Win, Desisa Nabs Silver Despite Vomiting Before The Race

by: LetsRun.com
August 17, 2013

The men’s marathon was decided right near 41 kilometers.

At that point, the race was down to two, 2012 Olympic champion Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda and Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia, who had already won two marathons this year with big kicks.

Desisa first had won the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon out-kicking four others to win in 2:04:45. Then, three months later he was in Boston, out-kicking two others to win the 2013 Boston Marathon.

Here Desisa did not get to show his finishing speed as after the 2:06 mark, Kiprotich accelerated and opened a small lead on Desisa. Kiprotich took the lead as the duo were leaving the main road and entering the Olympic park with a series of soft turns.

Desisa had been sitting on Kiprotich for a while and was trying to stay in Kiprotich’s slip stream, but Kiprotich decided to make it even harder to be tracked. Before they hit the soft turns, Kiprotich started zig-zagging on his own. Instead of running the tangent, Desisa zig-zagged behind him. Very strange indeed, but certainly great theatre. This is what championship racing is all about.

However, Kiprotich was too good and soon Desisa was dropped and Kiprotich would extend his lead to the finish over the final kilometer, winning 2:09:51 to Desisa’s 2:10:12. 2:04:49 man Tadese Tola of Ethiopia, who had been with them until the 2:03 mark, got the bronze and this year’s London champ Tsegay Kebede was fourth as Ethiopia went 2-3-4. Kenntaro Nakamoto of Japan, sixth in the Olympics, was 5th here and then two Brazilians, Solonei Da Silva and Paulo Robert Paula, who had run together the entire way, finished hand in hand in sixth and seventh.

Quick Takes: Desisa Is Officially a Marathon Star – He Vomited BEFORE the Race
After the race, Desisa revealed he had not felt well this morning (the race started at 3:30 pm) and vomited after breakfast. He said, “I wasn’t feeling well this morning and vomited after breakfast. During the race my mouth was dry. With 2 kilometers to go, I thought I could compete with Kiprotich, and normally I am a good finisher since I am originally a 10,000m runner, but I wasn’t able to change gears, maybe because what happened this morning. Before the race we were aiming for an Ethiopian sweep and we worked a lot as a team. We ended up with silver and bronze, which is not that bad after all.”

Well never know what would have happened if Desisas was 100% healthy but we can say he is a marathon star.

8 months ago he had never run a marathon.

Now he’s run:
2:04:45 1st in Dubai in debut
2:10:22 1st in Boston
2:10:12 2nd at World Champs

What’s their not to like about the guy? He’s only 23 and has shown he can run well on a flat fast course (Dubai), a hilly course (Boston), and a Championship course in warmer weather (Moscow).

It’ll be interesting to see now if he tried and get a big payday by running a fourth marathon this year. The smarter choice would be to defend in Dubai or hold out and run London next spring.

As for the strange zig-zagging, Desisa did not explain why he zig-zagged behind Kiprotich instead of taking the tangent, but re-watching the replay it might have been a combination of the fatigue of the marathon and the upcoming series of soft-turns. The runners were about to go through a zig-zag on the course and when Kiprotich started zig-zagging on his own before that, Desisas just followed him.

The Cool Story of Kiprotich and Haile Gebrselassie
Kiprotich surprised just about everyone by winning the Olympics. He showed that was no fluke as he got the win here versus a very strong Ethiopian team.

Afterwards, Kiprotich was asked which title, Worlds or the Olympics, was the best for him. He got a chuckle out of everyone with his witty response, “The current one is the best. Last year the Olympics is the best and now this one is the best.”

(As an aside, we really like Kiprotich’s personality. Not sure if that comes out in the video below, but he’s a good ambassador for the sport).

Kiprotich was asked if he had a hero who inspired him in the sport and he mentioned Haile Gebrselassie.

In 2007, Kiprotich and Haile raced at the Heerenberg Montferland Run in the Netherlands.  Here are the results from all-athletics.com:

Pl.	Athlete / Team	Cnt.	Birth	Result	Score
1.	Haile GEBRSELASSIE	ETH	73	42:36	1155	SB
2.	Ali Mabruk EL ZAIDI	LBA	78	42:42	1149	PB
3.	Wilson Kipsang KIPROTICH	KEN	82	43:30	1102	PB
4.	Wesley LANGAT	KEN	86	43:55	1078	PB
5.	Khalid BOUMELILI	MAR	78	44:23	1051	PB
6.	Mesefin ADIMASU	ETH	85	44:37	1037	PB
7.	Khalid EL AMRI	MAR	77	44:41	1034	PB
8.	Nouredinne ATHAMNA	ALG	84	45:51	968	SB
9.	Sander SCHUTGENS	NED	75	46:14	956	SB
10.	Hans JANSSENS	BEL	80	46:14	956
11.	Stephen KIPROTICH	UGA	89	46:15	955

Who would have thought that a guy in 11th place, beaten by 3:39 would 5 years later be the Olympic champion? Kiprotich, a student of the sport (he remembered he was 11th place in the race in talking about it a the press conference), took advantage of the opportunity of being with Haile at the race and asked him, “What do I need to do so I run good?” Haile, according to Kiprotich, had a simple answer, “You need to train well for five years.”

What happened 5 year later? Kiprotich won the Olympics.

Prior to the Olympics, Kiprotich and Haile both crossed paths at the February 2012 Tokyo Marathon where Kiprotich was third in 2:07:50 and Gebrselassie fourth in 2:08:17. Stephen asked Kiprotich if he remember him. Haile said he did, proving to Kiprotich, “I knew he was a sharp headed man.”

Kiprotich Talks About Gebrselassie Influence

For more for Kiprotich at the press conference click here.

The Americans react.

The self coached Jeff Eggleston led the Americans in 13th place. Scott Simmons coached Daniel Tapia was 27th and the Brad Hudson coached Carlos Trujillo was 37th.

Jeff Eggleston Self Coached With No Training Partners
Eggleston had a very good day. The goal was a top 15 or a top 20 finish and he finished 13th running very even splits: 1:06:51 and 1:07:32. (The top 3 guys were the only ones to negative split today). Eggleston, who lives in the running mecca of Boulder, Colorado, trains by himself and is self-coached. Those of you looking for the “secret” keep looking as he said there isn’t one. Eggleston said today was all about going off the feedback his body was giving him and he has learned how to do that from training by himself.

Daniel Tapia Done With Law School Heading to Colorado Springs
Tapia only found out a month ago he was running here when Mo Trafeh pulled out. The Scott Simmons coached athlete went to altitude and ramped up his training to compete here. Tapia now done with law school, had also been studying for the law bar exam which he took. He now will be moving to Colorado Springs to train with Simmons group.

Carlos Trujillo 37th Place
The former Oregon Duck lives in Boise, Idaho and is coached remotely by Brad Hudson.

Race splits here.

	POS	BIB	ATHLETE	COUNTRY	MARK
	1	1080	Stephen KIPROTICH	UGA	2:09:51
	2	417	Lelisa DESISA	ETH	2:10:12
	3	430	Tadese TOLA	ETH	2:10:23
	4	425	Tsegay KEBEDE	ETH	2:10:47
	5	680	Kentaro NAKAMOTO	JPN	2:10:50
	6	214	Solonei DA SILVA	BRA	2:11:40	SB
	7	222	Paulo Roberto PAULA	BRA	2:11:40	SB
	8	431	Yemane TSEGAY	ETH	2:11:43	SB
	9	723	Peter Kimeli SOME	KEN	2:11:47
	10	1079	Jackson KIPROP	UGA	2:12:12
	11	364	Beraki BEYENE	ERI	2:13:40	SB
	12	713	Bernard Kiprop KIPYEGO	KEN	2:14:01
	13	1124	Jeff EGGLESTON	USA	2:14:23	SB
	14	662	Masakazu FUJIWARA	JPN	2:14:29
	15	383	Javier GUERRA	ESP	2:14:33
	16	370	Samuel TSEGAY	ERI	2:14:41	SB
	17	676	Kazuhiro MAEDA	JPN	2:15:25
	18	675	Yuki KAWAUCHI	JPN	2:15:35
	19	1078	Abraham KIPLIMO	UGA	2:16:25
	20	261	Rob WATSON	CAN	2:16:28	SB
	21	599	Paul POLLOCK	IRL	2:16:42	SB
	22	1029	Mustafa MOHAMED	SWE	2:17:09	SB
	23	134	Martin DENT	AUS	2:17:11	SB
	24	971	Aleksey SOKOLOV	RUS	2:17:12
	25	714	Michael Kipkorir KIPYEGO	KEN	2:17:47
	26	903	Marius IONESCU	ROU	2:18:31
	27	1171	Daniel TAPIA	USA	2:18:32	SB
	28	461	Benjamin MALATY	FRA	2:19:21
	29	1204	Jordan CHIPANGAMA	ZAM	2:19:47
	30	350	Miguel Ángel ALMACHI	ECU	2:19:48	SB
	31	369	Kiflom SIUM	ERI	2:20:01
	32	1043	Chia-Che CHANG	TPE	2:20:02	SB
	33	564	Jeremías SALOJ	GUA	2:20:40	SB
	34	1036	Faustine MUSSA	TAN	2:20:51
	35	1010	Christian KREIENBÜHL	SUI	2:21:17
	36	797	Ser-Od BAT-OCHIR	MGL	2:21:55
	37	1175	Carlos TRUJILLO	USA	2:23:13	SB
	38	149	Tilahun ALIYEV	AZE	2:23:32
	39	1035	Mohamed Ikoki MSANDEKI	TAN	2:24:20	SB
	40	601	Zohar ZEMIRO	ISR	2:25:23
	41	1011	Michael OTT	SUI	2:26:02
	42	1097	Vasyl MATVIYCHUK	UKR	2:26:21	SB
	43	919	Sibusiso NZIMA	RSA	2:26:32
	44	739	Jihun SUNG	KOR	2:26:43
	45	290	Shujin YIN	CHN	2:27:19
	46	785	Roman PRODIUS	MDA	2:29:08
	47	922	Hendrick RAMAALA	RSA	2:30:23
	48	783	Sergiu CIOBANU	MDA	2:34:17	SB
	49	731	Youngjin KIM	KOR	2:35:53
	50	136	Shawn FORREST	AUS	2:39:09	SB
	51	694	Mihail KRASSILOV	KAZ	2:44:31	SB
		707	Nicholas KIPKEMBOI	KEN	DNF
		715	Bernard Kiprop KOECH	KEN	DNF
		759	Jobo KHATOANE	LES	DNF
		761	Tsepo RAMONENE	LES	DNF
		768	Mohamed BILAL	MAR	DNF
		770	Hafid CHANI	MAR	DNF
		663	Hiroyuki HORIBATA	JPN	DNF
		427	Feyisa LILESA	ETH	DNF
		105	Tayeb FILALI	ALG	DNF
		385	Ayad LAMDASSEM	ESP	DNF
		363	Yared ASMEROM	ERI	DNF
		366	Yonas KIFLE	ERI	DNF
		795	José Antonio URIBE	MEX	DNF
		812	Michel BUTTER	NED	DNF
		887	Hermano FERREIRA	POR	DNF
		980	Jean Pierre MVUYEKURE	RWA	DNF
		227	Aadam Ismaeel KHAMIS	BRN	DNF
		1067	Wissem HOSNI	TUN	DNF
		1207	Cephas PASIPAMIRI	ZIM	DNS

*More Worlds Coverage Here