media_artricles :: 2015

CUBAN TAKES UWI MARATHON

Perez and Kiptoo dominate

Under extremely rainy conditions that appeared to be conducive for breaking records, debutant Richard Perez of Cuba and Kenyan Caroline Kiptoo ensured another foreign dominance at yesterday’s 12th edition of the UWI Spec International Half Marathon from the St Augustine Campus to the La Resource junction in D’ Abadie and back.

Perez, the Pan American marathon champion left the field behind to cross the finish line in a time of one hour and eight minutes flat. Kiptoo on the other hand had to work hard up until the last few miles to beat her Trinidadian counterpart Tonya Nero with some five miles to go and retain the title she won last year.

Her time was one hour, 17 minutes and 54 seconds while Nero was exactly a minute behind her in one hour, 18 minutes and 54 seconds.

A heavy downpour soon before the start at 5.30 am yesterday morning may have swayed some fans from making an appearance to support their runners but it also provided an alternative from a usually scorching hot event which saw a field of 1,200 face the starters gun. And Perez, a first timer to the event had to keep his eyes on favourites Kenneth Rotich of Kenya and Chavez Da Silva of Brazil. However the Brazilian, who only last year said that he wanted to win the race for the next ten years, had to pull out of the race somewhere close to the midway point due to diarrhoea.

With ten miles to go Rotich, who has dominated local long and middle distance racing, couldn’t keep up with the Cuban and Perez opened up a huge lead and took it to the finish. After the race he told the Guardian “I didn’t know what to expect so I decided to start slowly and monitor the top runners. With 10 miles to go I realised that the Kenyan could not keep up with me so I raced to the finish line for the win.”

Strangely the Cuban said also that the rainy conditions held him back as he felt heavy throughout the race. Perez’s time of 1:08.00 flat was a mere three minutes shy of the course record.

Following him in second was Rotich in 1:08.06 with Jamaican Kirk Brown in third in 1:09.12 and fourth Pedro Espinoza Perez of Mexico in 1:09.57 while another Jamaican Ruper Green secured the fifth position in 1:10.49. Meanwhile with Richard Jones still recovering from a slip disk in his back, T&T failed to be among the top six runners yesterday. In fact Matthew Hagley was the first T&T runner to cross the finish line in a time one hour, 13 minutes and 12 seconds in position seventh. Veteran Curtis Cox was two spots behind Hagley in ninth (1:15.53).

Among the women Kiptoo could not shake off a nagging Nero for most of the race but eventually got the better of her with five miles to go and win by a minute. She said afterwards that she was satisfied with her time because it was an improvement from last year. Meanwhile the slender built Nero, who only a few days ago said that she would have stopped the foreign domination, explained that she was totally satisfied with her time.

“One of my main goals was to dip under the one hour and 20 minute hurdle and I did that. I think I ran my race under conditions conditions that I really enjoyed but the Kenyan ran well and won. Maybe next year I will try again” Nero said. She added “I have been using this race also to prepare for the Dubai marathon next year and I think it went well also so I am satisfied.”

Nero was followed in third by Yailen Garcia of Cuba and Celine Lestrade of T&T in fourth.

Meanwhile organisers of the uwi half marathon remembered veteran runner Charles Spooner by presenting a painting of the runner to his family. Spooner who died earlier this year at the age of 91, was a regular participant in the race who in fact took part of every race except this one.

At the event yesterday was Minister of National Security Edmund Dillon, UWI principal Professor Clement Sankat and other dignitaries.

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