Fate hands Keitany the world marathon crown

By Jonathan Komen and Titus Too

When ING New York City Marathon was cancelled indefinitely over super-storm Sandy last Saturday, Mary Jepkosgei Keitany thanked the gods.

Three weeks ago, she had picked an injury that had ruled her out of the competition. So she put her plans for the race aside and focused on next year’s competitions.

Although she was ahead of the other female competitors, she knew without the points she could have bagged after the New York race she was going to lose ground.

Then nature conspired to give her victory. The race was cancelled over the storm and having been ahead of the pack, she was declared winner.

Keitany, 30, has been performing well in major global marathon events and she was determined to make the New York City one the icing on the cake — that was before the injury.

Consolidated wins

Whatever the competition outcome was going to be is now history; Keitany is the winner of the 2011/2012 World Marathon Majors (WMM) series in the women’s category.

The winner in the male category is fellow Kenyan, the Berlin Marathon winner and the fastest marathoner, Geoffrey Mutai.

Mutai walked away with the WMM series title after he consolidated wins in Boston, New York and Berlin to collect 75 points. Keitany had collected 60 points to top the marathon majors rankings and hence why she was picked for the jackpot.

The crown comes with Sh42.5 million jackpot — however she will end up with about Sh30 million after paying tax to the US and 15 percent to her agent.

If KRA goes ahead with its plan to also tax the athletes, then the prize will substantially reduce.

Only two non-Kenyan runners were in the top five places in the contention for the female prize.

Other contenders included Edna Kiplagat (50 points), Sharon Cherop (45 points), Olympic silver medallist Prisca Jeptoo (40 points) and Russia’s Liliya Shobukhova (45 points).

New York Marathon is one of the ‘Big Five’ races that count towards the WMM series. The others are Berlin, London, Chicago and Boston marathons.

The victory is a timely consolation for the runner from Kisok village in Koibatek, Baringo County, after she finished outside the medal bracket at the London Olympic Games marathon showdown in August.

Keitany, who won the Virgin London Marathon in April, said the prize was a pleasant gift.

“I was surprised when I received the news. It was not easy to know the winner among Edna Kiplagat, Sharon Cherop and myself. I am sorry they didn’t win since they had prepared well for the race for almost six months,” Keitany told The Standard in an exclusive interview in Eldoret yesterday.

Picked points

She went on: “I was on my way to London when I received a short text message from my manager that the race had been cancelled and organisers had crowned me the major’s winner. I had planned to meet the manager in New York so that we plan for next year.”

Besides winning the London Marathon last year and this year, Keitanyi had also picked points when she finished third at last year’s ING New York Marathon.

Keitany, who trains under Italian track and field manager Gianni Demadona, said: “I thank God for the win because he knew that I had worked hard for it. I knew I was leading the table standings since last year but was waiting for the New York duel to decide. In fact, I am overjoyed.”

Keitany now joins a rich field of Kenyan men runners, who have bagged the majors title.

Last year alone, Kenyans won 98 out of 100 marathons around the world. Although she had a burgeoning career in athletics, Keitany participated in school competitions for fun, reaching district level at 5,000m while in Standard Seven.

After identifying her potential upon completing Form Four, Keitany went to Iten for full-time training. The rest, as they say, is history.