Kenya strikes first gold as Special Olympics begin

competitors start a heat of the Women's 100m sprints during the 2015 Special Olympics World Games, at the Loker USC Stadium in Los Angeles on July 26, 2015. The Special Olympics, the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, will be the single largest event in Los Angeles since the 1984 Olympics, with more that 7,000 athletes from 165 countries participating. AFP PHOTO/MARK RALSTON

Onesmus Mutinda won gold for Kenya in men’s 10,000m as the 14th edition of Special Olympics World Summer Games started in Los Angeles, USA, on Sunday.

Mutinda breezed to the tape to clock 32:46.10 for the win. He was closely followed by Christian Wiesenberger of Germany who clocked 35:54.39 while Spaniard Perez Hernandez Denis finished third in 36:28.09.

The Games, whose special ambassadors are Olympic athletes like Michael Phelps and Greg Louganis, were officially opened by US First Lady Michelle Obama on Saturday.

Kenya has sent a contingent of 68 athletes to the Games. They will take part in six disciplines including football, athletics, swimming, half marathon, basketball and handball.

Meanwhile, Kenya’s Stanley Biwott dominated a quality field with a dominating solo performance to win the Bogota Half Marathon, an IAAF Gold Label Road Race, in 1:03:15 on Sunday.

Biwott had entered the race as the overwhelming favourite for one of South America’s only two IAAF top status road races after having run the fastest half marathon in the world this year with his 59:20 performance in The Hague.

From the start, he shot to the front and quickly established his superiority.

With the Colombian capital sitting at an altitude of around 2,600 metres, this race was never going to be about record times for Biwott but he gave a good impression in the opening kilometres that he was targeting Geoffrey Mutai’s course record of 1:02:20.

He reached the finish in Simon Bolivar Park and punched the air in delight, his winning time of 1:03:15 giving him a yawning 92 seconds to spare over Ethiopia’s Tadesse Tola, who came home in 1:04:47. Kenya’s Kimutai Kiplimo finished third in 1:05:14.

“It was not easy,” reflected Biwott. “It was humid and windy sometimes, and the course was tough. I was expecting to run 62 but I was running all alone so that makes the time a little bit slow. If there was competition, I think I would have run 61.”

- Additional report by IAAF