Dickson Marwa totally flops in Italy

Tanzania Dickson Marwa, who was given a greater chance to win the 2nd IAAF World Road Running Championships title in Udine, Italy finished eighth yesterday.

Marwa, who was among four local athletes who represented the country in Italy, ran for one hour and 25 seconds.

Local runners who did not manage to appear in top 10 are John Yuda, Fabian Joseph and Samwel Kwaang.

Kicking from a tight four man pack in the 57th minute, Zersenay Tadesse of Eritrea successfully defended his title.

Tadesse, also the reigning World Cross Country champion, covered the Half Marathon distance in 58:59, a championships record, comfortably holding off Kenyan Patrick Makau Musyoki`s (59:02) homestretch rally by three seconds.

Evans Cheruiyot was third (59:05) and Ethiopian Deriba Merga, who along with Tadesse controlled much of the race`s tempo, was fourth (59:16).

Taking advantage of the near ideal conditions and a fast course, the race was fast from the outset, with the quartet passing the first 10 kilometres in 27:35 and 15km in 41:34, just six seconds off World record pace.

In a deep finish, the first seven finishers dipped under 60 minutes, with an additional 10 stopping the clock in under 1:01:00.

The morning`s blazing tempo was too much for World record holder Samuel Wanjiru. A distant eighth and 18 seconds behind at 10km, he crossed the line 51st, clocking 1:03:31.

In woman`s race, Lornah Kiplagat smashing en route the World 20 kilometres record went on to break the figure with a superb time of 1:06:25.

Her brilliant performance sliced a healthy 19 seconds from the figure of 1:06:44 Elana Meyer ran eight years ago in Tokyo, although Paula Radcliffe on the slightly downhill BUPA Great North Run clocked the world`s fastest ever but unratified time of 1:05:40 four years ago.

Kiplagat returning from a calf injury which kept her out of the World Championships in the summer was with her exceptional display, a convincing winner of a second successive World Road Running Championship title ahead of Mary Keitany.

The 32-year-old Kenyan-born athlete who for the last four years has represented the Netherlands, going into the final lap, held a four second lead from her former countrywoman.

Keitany rallied to close it to just two at 15K, a tactic which saw an almost instant response from the defending champion.

Kiplagat winner of this year`s World Cross Country title and sensing her presence, then went into overdrive, powering away over the fast course.

Kiplagat who won the US30,000 dollars first prize also picked up a US50,000 World record bonus while Keitany was rewarded with a Kenyan national record of 1:06:48 with her teammate Pamela Chepchumba finishing third in a personal best 1:08:06.

Kenya retained its team title aggregating a time of 3:23:33 ahead of Ethiopia (3:25:51) and Japan (3:27:39) the respective bronze medallists in Hungary 12 months ago.