Roundup: Gold for Kenya and Britain in the opening day of IAAF worlds in Moscow
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E-mail Xinhua, August 11, 2013
The 2013 IAAF World Championships opened here on Saturday with Kenya's defending champion Edna Ngeringwony Kiplagat claiming the first gold in women's marathon and Britain's double Olympic champion triumphing in style in men's 10000m race.
The women's marathon was held on 2:00 pm local time. The strong sunshine and heat posed great troubles to the runners. The 33-year- old Kiplagat, who led home a clean Kenyan podium sweep in Daegu, South Korea, made history as the first woman ever to land back-to- back marathon titles in world championships, defending her title in 2:25.44.
"I am delighted I was able to defend my title successfully. The time of the race is unusual, because I am used to run most of my races in the morning. So during my preparation I tried to adjust my training to the time," said Kiplagat at the news conference after the race which kicked off on 2:00 pm local time.
Italy's Valeria Straneo, who enjoyed the lead for most of the race, took the silver in 2:25:58. Kayoko Fukushi of Japan, the 2006 Asian Games 10,000m champion, was a distance third in 2:27:45.
"I think that I am the surprise of the day. To me this medal is a big surprise. I never thought that I would win the silver here," said the 37-year-old Straneo, national record holder in both women 's marathon and half marathon who won the half marathon title at the 2013 Mediterranean Games in Mersin, Turkey.
Straneo took the lead early in the race and finished the first 5km in 17 minutes and 7 seconds, pacing a leading group of 13 runners. After 33km the leading pack was trimmed to only two runners with Olympic eighth-place finisher Straneo still leading and Kiplagat on her heels.
Straneo managed to maintain her lead till the 40km mark but could not stop the defending champion from notch the lead in the final kilometers.
"At 40km I had to let Edna go because I felt a pain in my legs. I ran my own race from the beginning and my pace was good," said Straneo.
"In the beginning of the competition I kept my pace as I need to get familiar with the road situation and the weather. After one third of the race I tried to increase the speed and I got confident I was going to win at 40km when I started to increase my pace," said Kiplagat.
"I am satisfied with my results today because it was a little bit hard for me to defend. The weather is hot and I was getting tired towards the finishing. But I told myself, 'Keep going, keep going.'"
"I want to dedicate my victory to my husband for letting me have enough time to train," Kiplagat added. "My family supports me very much and they are the power for me to overcome all the difficulties. My husband and four kids were watching the competition and we share the same happiness."
Britain's double Olympic champion Mohamed Farah claimed the title of men's 10,000m event before the opening ceremony was held in the Luzhniki Stadium.
It was a sweet revenge for Farah who was beaten by a 52.8- second last lap from the Ethiopian surprise Ibrahim Jeilan in Daegu worlds in 2011.
Farah kept a low profile at the beginning of the race, staying at the last in the first three laps. He dashed to take the lead after the 6th lap before immediately slowing down to hide himself in the middle of the chasing group.
The 30-year-old Briton, gold medalist of men's 5000m and 10, 000m at London Games, speeded up to seize the lead again with two laps to go and held off a homestretch charge from defending champion Jeilan to win the 25-lap race in 27 minutes, 21.71 seconds.
"I am excited to win the competition. It was a great race and I respected all my competitors. Jeilan won the gold medal in the last World Championships and today Tanui quite well pushed the pace. I am not dominating the long distance, what I want is only to collect more medals for my family and my country, "said Farah after the race.
"I had the experience from a couple of years ago and I saw Jeilan coming at the bell. I didn't want to lose again. I remember a couple of years ago I was second and I was just digging in, digging in and make sure I didn't over stride," he added. "I kept looking across and you could see in my eyes, I was just making sure they didn't come after me. It was nice to come out here and win it. That was the one missing."
Jeilan, who missed almost all of last year and didn't compete in London, finished second in 27:22.23 while Kenya's Paul Kipngetich Tanui, the 2011 World Cross Country Championships silver medallist, finished third in 27:22.61.
Olympic champion and world recorder Ashton Eaton of the United States led the men's Decathlon with 4502 points after 5 events on Saturday.
Saturday's evening session also witnessed the 1st round competition of men's 100m sprint, with Jamaica's world recorder holder Usain Bolt running a relaxing 10.07 seconds to finish first in the 7th heat. United States sprinter Mike Rodgers topped the time sheet in 9,98 while China's Zhang Peimeng equaled his own national record of 10.04 to win heat four. Endi
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