Weekend road round-up: course records broken in Istanbul, Beijing and Hangzhou – International Association of Athletics Federations

Daniel Kibet had been recruited as a pacemaker for the Vodafone Istanbul Marathon, but the Kenyan was clearly inspired by the IAAF Gold Label road race’s motto – ‘Don’t stop, run!’ – and stayed on to win the event in a course record of 2:09:44 on Sunday (3).

Ethiopia’s Hirut Tibebu clocked Istanbul’s third-fastest winning time to take the women’s title in 2:23:40, just five seconds shy of her lifetime best.

One of three pacemakers for the lead pack, Kibet led a group of 14 men through 10km in 30:14 and all but one of those were still in the pack as they reached the half-way point in 1:04:12, well on schedule to break the course record of 2:09:57.

Defending champion and course record-holder Felix Kimutai and Turkey’s two-time European 10,000m champion Polat Kemboi Arikan were also in the lead group, but Arikan could only keep up the pace for another few kilometres before drifting away from the leaders at about 27km.

Kibet, meanwhile, still looked comfortable at the front and reached 30km – the point at which he was due to drop out – in 1:31:29. While Kibet continued to run, fellow pacemaker Moses Kemei exited the race then, leaving four other athletes – Peter Ndorobo, Yitayal Atnafu, Cosmas Birech and Kimutai – in contention.

Birech was the first of that quintet to fade with the remaining four hitting the 40km mark in 2:02:53, still inside course record pace. Kimutai was the next to fall behind, doing so quite quickly as the lead pack entered Gulhane Park with 2:06 on the clock.

Less than a minute later, Kibet put in a decisive surge and broke up the front trio. He forged on ahead and went on to win in 2:09:44, taking 13 seconds off Kimutai’s course record. Atnafu held on for second place in 2:09:57 with Ndorobo finishing third in 2:10:09, 41 seconds ahead of Kimutai.

Kibet’s winning time was some way short of the 2:06:49 PB he set in Seville earlier this year, but it comes just six weeks after his 2:06:52 clocking in Buenos Aires and is his first victory over the classic distance.

The course record of 2:18:35 – set last year by world champion Ruth Chepngetich – was never under threat in the women’s race, but it played out in similar fashion to the men’s contest with eventual winner Hirut Tibebu breaking away in the final few kilometres.

The opening pace was relatively swift with the lead group of seven women passing 10km in 33:50, which is 2:22:45 pace – a time that only one woman in the field, Visiline Jepkesho, had ever bettered.

But Jepkesho, a 2:21:37 performer at best who had clocked 2:22:40 to finish second in Istanbul in 2017, was already struggling to stay with the lead pack, perhaps having not yet fully recovered from contesting the World Championships marathon in Doha five weeks ago. Another of the pre-race favourites, Bahrain’s Merima Mohammed, was even further back and soon dropped out.

Tibebu, however, was always among the leaders and they passed through the half-way point in 1:11:38, putting them on pace for a finishing time just outside 2:23. The Ethiopian had four other women for company – compatriots Tigist Abayechew and Sifan Melaku plus Kenyan duo Maurine Chepkemoi and Angela Tanui – as she reached 30km in 1:41:53.

Melaku and Tanui started to drift back over the next few kilometres and were soon followed by Chepkemoi and Abayechew, leaving Tibebu out in front alone. The 24-year-old pressed on unopposed to win in 2:23:40.

Further back, Abayechew and Chepkemoi were locked in their own battle for the other two podium spots with Abayechew managing to hold off the Kenyan to take second place, 2:24:15 to Chepkemoi’s 2:24:16.

Jon Mulkeen for the IAAF

Kisorio sets course record in Beijing

Kenya’s Mathew Kipkoech Kisorio broke away in the final 10 kilometres of the Beijing Marathon to rewrite the men’s course record at the IAAF Gold Label road race on Sunday (3).

The 30-year-old clocked 2:07:06 to earn his second victory over the classic distance, knocking 10 seconds off the course record set six years ago by Ethiopia’s 2013 world bronze medallist Tadese Tola.

“It is my first time to run in Beijing and I am very happy to win and to break the course record,” said Kisorio, who set his PB of 2:04:53 last year in Valencia. “The weather was fantastic. I expect to come to Beijing again next year.”

Starting under cloudy and drizzling skies with the temperature ranging from 7-10C, the race was fast from the outset. Four runners – Bazu Worku of Ethiopia, Kisorio and his compatriots Emmanuel Rutto and Solomon Kirwa Yego – led the race to 25km.

Worku, a three-time winner of the Houston Marathon, was the first to fade away after 28km, while 36-year-old Rutto quit the title contest after 30km. After another two kilometres, Kisorio broke away from Yego to move into a sole lead.

The 2017 Daegu Marathon winner was well on track to break the course record at 35km, reached in 1:45:10, and kept pushing ahead before hit the line in 2:07:06. Yego trailed by more than two minutes to finish second in 2:09:45. Rutto clocked 2:10:15 to finish third.