media_artricles :: 2016

Kiptanui Too, Alvarez claim UWI half marathon

International runners continued their dominance of the University of the West Indies Sports and Physical Education Centre (UWI-Spec) international half marathon, as Kenya's Hillary Kiptanui Too claimed the top spot among men and Venezuela's Yeisy Alvarez secured the women's title at yesterday's 13th staging of the race.

Kiptanui Too, in his first effort in the event, crossed the finish line in one hour, five minutes and 48 seconds, under sweltering hot sun which took the runners from the St Augustine Campus to La Resource Junction in D'Abadie and back. He held off last year's winner Richer Perez of Cuba, who clocked one hour; nine minutes and 37 seconds.

Kiptanui Too collected the US $2,500 while Perez received US $2,000.

Another newcomer Peter NKaya from Kenya was third in 1:11.03 seconds while Alexis Pena of Venezuela was fourth (1:11:10).

T&T's best male runner was Kelvin Johnson who was fifth (1:14:42) but missed out on the $5,000 incentive offered for locals breaking a time barrier of one hour and 10 minutes.

Johnson also missed out on the $50, 000 incentive for any local runner breaking the national record in middle distance running offered by Finnish Information Technology company Mexadia. Lionel Dandrade, Colin Perreira, Richard Jones and Matthew Hagley came in sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth at 1:15:06, 1:15:38, 1:16:00 and 1:16:50 respectively while veteran Curtis Cox just held off Alvarez for his 10th position overall in 1:17:47.

Alvarez, who was third last year, capitalised on the absence of defending champion Caroline Kiptoo of Kenya, out injured, to claim the victory among the women in one hour: 17 minutes and 59 seconds. The Venezuelan got the better of second place T&T's Tonya Nero who was hoping to turn the tables on the foreigners for the first time since its inception.

Nero said her goal was to finish first, noting that she went out in front from the start but was soon joined by Alvarez until the half-way stage. "I had my plan going into the race, but I realised that when I went out front I was joined by Alvarez. She stayed with me for the first half and then pulled away. I kept her in sight though, but when it was about three miles from the finish line, she increased her speed and I didn't have the pace to catch her. She is a very strong runner and it worked for her yesterday," Nero said.

Nero crossed the line in 1:18.41 seconds, and like Johnson, missed out on the same cash incentives on offer. The local women had to beat 1:17.10 seconds for the $5,000 cash award, as well as break the national record for the $50,000 reward.

Nero said she was not disappointed by her performance since she ran faster than last year.

She will now contest the South American 10 in Guyana in two weeks and will consider doing some cross country races thereafter.

Christelle Laurent, Guadeloupe's middle distance running sensation, finished a distant third in 1:34:51 seconds.

Top