Leonard Korir Becomes First American Man to Win Falmouth in 30 Years – runnersworld.com
Leonard Korir Becomes First American Man to Win Falmouth in 30 Years runnersworld.com
The professional runner from Colorado Springs, Colorado, beat four-time champion Stephen Sambu of Kenya at the seven-mile race in Massachusetts on …
- On Sunday morning, August 18, 32-year-old Leonard Korir of Colorado Springs, Colorado, became the first American to win the Falmouth Road Race since 1988.
- Korir won in 32:11, beating four-time Falmouth champion Stephen Sambu and Edward Cheserek, who finished second and third, respectively.
- Sharon Lokedi of Kenya won the women’s race in 36:29, while U.S. distance runner Sara Hall finished runner-up.
Coming into the Falmouth Road Race in Falmouth, Massachusetts, on August 18, Leonard Korir had a chip on his shoulder. In the last four years, he’s placed either second or third in the seven-mile race along the Atlantic coastline, but he had never broken the tape.
In three of those past four races, he lost to Stephen Sambu of Kenya, who has won the race four times—in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017. While Korir beat Sambu last year—the runners finished third and fourth, respectively—the rivals were both back to win this year.
It turned out to be Korir’s time to break the tape. On Sunday morning, the 32-year-old from Colorado Springs, Colorado, won Falmouth in 32:11, becoming the first American to take the title since Missouri native Mark Curp won in 1988. Sambu, 31, finished runner-up in a distant 32:29, just barely beating former Oregon Duck Edward Cheserek, 25, who crossed the line in third in 32:30.
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Last year’s champion, Ben Flanagan of Canada, was planning to defend his title at Falmouth this year, but withdrew from the competition a few days out due to an injury, he announced on Instagram.
Korir’s efforts earned him a handsome paycheck of $18,000 total: $10,000 for winning, plus $3,000 for finishing as the first American, and another $5,000 for finishing before the “countdown” clock ran out (which started as soon as the first-place woman, Sharon Lokedi of Kenya, crossed the finish line), according to Letsrun.com.
“This race, I’ve been trying, like five times,” Korir told Letsrun.com. “I have to win it. If I don’t win it today, I might not [have the chance to] win it again.”
Korir executed the race flawlessly, letting a lead pack that included Sambu and Cheserek set the pace for the first four miles. At the 10K mark, Korir and Sambu had broken away from Cheserek—who had dropped 20 seconds behind them in third—with Korir surging ahead of Sambu by seven seconds. Korir unleashed his kick then, widening the gap on Sambu to 20 seconds; the Kenyan runner was too tired to respond, so Korir closed on the oceanside finish line with no other runners in sight.
In the women’s race, first place went to Sharon Lokedi of Kenya, a former star at the University of Kansas who won the 2018 NCAA Outdoor 10,000 meters in a meet-record time of 32:09.20. The 25-year-old broke the tape at Falmouth in 36:29, while first-place American Sara Hall, 36, finished runner-up in 36:34, and 33-year-old Margaret Wangari of Kenya placed third in 36:43.
The last American woman to win Falmouth was California’s Magdalena Lewy Boulet, whose time of 36:58 took the crown in 2011. The day before Falmouth this year, on August 17, Boulet finished first for women at the 2019 Leadville Trail 100 in Leadville, Colorado.
Digital Editor Hailey first got hooked on running news as an intern with Running Times, and now she reports on elite runners and cyclists, feel-good stories, and training pieces for Runner’s World and Bicycling magazines.