Wanjiru takes London honours
Sunday, 26 April 2009Olympic champion Sammy Wanjiru kept his nerve to win the men's Flora London Marathon ahead of Beijing bronze-medallist Tsegay Kebede.
Wanjiru, whose attempt to break Haile Gebrselassie's world record fizzled out just after the halfway point, won in the fastest time of his career - an unofficial course record of two hours, five minutes, 10 seconds.
After breaking up the pack after 19 miles, the Kenyan held off the determined challenge of Ethiopia's Kebede by 10 seconds with a series of surges. Jaouad Gharbib of Morocco was third in 2hr 5min 27sec.
In the women's race, Great Britain's Mara Yamauchi was denied victory by a dominant display from defending champion Irina Mikitenko.
Yamauchi produced the finest performance of her career and remained in contention until around six miles from the finish when Germany's Mikitenko put in the first of two powerful surges on her way to an comfortable victory.
Mikitenko won in an unofficial time of two hours, 22 minutes, 11 seconds to earn a third marathon title. Yamauchi, whose previous best placing in London was sixth, achieved her pre-race ambitions of a podium finish by taking the silver medal in a personal best time of 2hr 23min 12sec.
