ONE MORE STEP CLOSER TO RIO GAMES: Chicago Marathon winners hope to make team to 2016 Olympic Games

Dickson Chumba and Florence Kiplagat’s win at the Chicago Marathon on Sunday set the pace for Kenya as campaigns for slots to 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, Brazil, start in earnest.

The duo triumphed at the Bank of America for the second time in three years, which left selectors to the Olympic Games scratching their heads.

Kiplagat, a former footballer while at Sergoit Secondary School in Keiyo North, asserted herself in front of a lead pack of seven runners for the better part of the race, before pulling away in the final five kilometres of the race and crossed the finish line in 2:23:33.

Ethiopians Yebrgual Melese and Birhane Dibaba were second and third in women’s race, in a time of 2:23:43 and 2:24:24 respectively.

Dickson Chumba, who trains in Italia’s Rosa and Associati camp in Kapsabet, won the men’s title in 2:09:25. Compatriots Sammy Kitwara and Sammy Ndungu were the second and third in 2:09:50 and 2:10:06 respectively.

Luke Puskedra was the top US finisher with a 2:10:24 performance in fifth place. Kiplagat’s winning time puts her 20th on this year’s world season list and netted her 25 points in the 2015-2016 Abbot World Marathon Majors standings that will reward $500,000 (Sh52 million) to the winner after next February’s Tokyo Marathon.

The real race began leading up to the 40-kilometre marker, as the pack was whittled down one by one, leaving just Kiplagat and Melese out in front. With just a few kilometres left, Kiplagat pulled away from Melese to win in 2:23:33, her first marathon victory outside Berlin.

In last year’s race, Kiplagat finished second after she was dropped in the final kilometres. Memories of that race seemed to motivate her this time in the final stages.

“Tactics are different in a race with no pacemakers, so I was trying to control in the front and in the back again,” said Kiplagat, who earlier this year, broke her own world half-marathon record with 1:05:09 in Barcelona.

After crossing the finish line, Kiplagat attempted to leap in joy, but her feet crumbled and she rolled over. Still smiling, she tossed a thumbs-up on the ground as she dedicated the race to her two daughters.

“I was jumping for them because it has been a long time [since] winning,” Kiplagat said. “They said ‘Mom, do something because it has been a long time’.”

A fast time in Chicago was not guaranteed without the use of pace-makers, which was evident as a group of about 10 runners crossed the half-marathon mark in 1:05:11.
Chumba, the 2014 Tokyo Marathon champion, held strong as he turned into the final 200 metres of the race with no one near him.

The 29-year-old crossed the finish line in 2:09:25, 25 seconds ahead of his compatriot. Chumba estimates that he would have been capable of running 2:04 or 2:05 with pacers in the race.

“Running today (Sunday) was like a long run training time,” Kitwara said following his second-place finish. “A slow pace was tough.”