Athletics: Kiptanui beats the winds to win Lisbon race

Battling high winds, Kenyan Erick Kiptanui and Etagegn Woldu of Ethiopia prevailed in their respective races at the Lisbon Half Marathon, an IAAF Gold Label road race, at the weekend.

Despite the wind and rain, the men's race still witnessed deep results with the first 12 running under 61 minutes.

From the start to the first turn, a stretch of about seven kilometres, the runners forged on with a tailwind, but over the next 10, they faced a headwind, with the final four again run with the wind.

Until that second turn, more than 15 runners remained in the lead group. Only after the 17th kilometre did the race begin to change.

That was the moment Kiptanui upped the tempo to build a small lead. The challengers tried to make up ground at different points in the waning different stages, but couldn't catch Kiptanui, who closed the contest with a 1:00:05 victory. [IAAF]