Kenyan Women reign supreme in Sunday road races in Europe

NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 3 – Judith Jeptum and Margaret Chelimo withheld stiff challenges from Ethiopian opposition as they both clinched victories in World Athletics Elite Label road races on Sunday in Paris and Barcelona respectively.

Jeptum clinched the Schneider Electric Marathon de Paris title in an all-comers record, running a personal best time of 2:19:48 while World 5,000m silver medalist Chelimo reigned Supreme at the Edreams Mitja Marató Barcelona Half Marathon in a time of 1:05:26.

“It was my debut so I can’t be more satisfied. Everything was superb, the circuit, the temperature and the pacemaker,” an excited Chelimo said after the race.

Meanwhile, Jeptum said she was excited with her victory.

“The cold weather made the race hard,” said Jeptum, who set a half marathon PB of 1:05:28 earlier this year. “But I tried to do my best and to push hard.”

In Paris, Sharon Chelimo and Marion Kibor, who spearheaded the lead group of seven runners, set out at an aggressive pace from the outset in sunny but cold conditions.

They covered the first 10km in 32:23, suggesting a finishing time inside 2:17 – well under the course record of 2:20:55 set by Purity Rionoripo in 2017. The rhythm slowly faded over the next kilometres, though, as the pack reached half way in 1:08:31.

Five kilometres later, Jeptum moved up a gear and broke up the lead group. By 30km, reached in 1:37:44, she had built a one-minute gap over the rest of the field.

Although her pace slowed in the waning stages, she reached the tape in 2:19:48, taking almost three minutes off her PB and more than a minute off the course record.

-Chelimo thrives in Half Marathon debut-

Meanwhile in the Spanish City of Barcelona, Chelimo was thriving in her debut over the 21km distance.

Spain’s Alejandro Rodríguez set the early pace for the elite women and he set off at a moderate 3:07-3:08/km pace for the opening uphill kilometres.

The first 5km was covered in 15:39 with just Chelimo and Ethiopian duo Gete Alemayehu and Ayanech Awoke matching the pacemaker, while Ethiopia’s Rediet Molla was further behind (16:00).

The tempo heated up over the second 5km section which only took 15:19 for a 30:58 10km split; by then Awoke had begun to lose ground and only Chelimo and Alemayehu remained close to the pacesetter who dropped out of the race exactly at 12km with the clock reading 37:12, well on schedule to finish inside 1:06.

Over the following kilometres, Chelimo ran sandwiched between a number of male athletes, which helped to keep the pace fast enough to threaten her compatriot Florence Kiplagat’s course record of 1:05:09 set in 2015 as another 15:24 5k split led to a 46:22 clocking at 15km.

That kind of cadence proved to be too tough for Alemayehu, a 1:08:23 performer; the Ethiopian had lost 18 seconds on Chelimo by then.

Chelimo’s rhythm slowed down a bit in the following 5km section, which she covered in 15:47, but she found another gear for a fast finish, crossing the line in 1:05:26 – the third fastest clocking in the history of the event, only bettered by Kiplagat’s 1:05:12 (2014) and 1:05:09 (2015) then world records.