Commonwealth Games Marathon 2010 - The Act of Bouncing Back.
The 2010 Commonwealth Games marathon race was held in Delhi, India. The distance to cover during the run was 42.195km for the marathoners. They had go through the 10km route of Sansad Marg Road four times. Hence, there were altogether 4 loops. Additionally, they had to run 2.195km to complete the marathon distance. It was excessively hot on that day. Even with that, surmounting all odds, it was a Kenyan double for the first time in the history of the Commonwealth Games for Kenya. John Kelai came in first in the men section while Irene Jerotich Kosgei came in champion in the female section. Finally, the marathon race brought the curtain down for the Commonwealth itself.
The overall champion of the medal tally was Australia with 75 gold medals. However, in the top athletics country category, with the latest news of two Kenyans clinching gold in the marathon race, Kenya sealed itself as the top of the table country in the athletics category of the Commonwealth Games with 11 gold medals. Recently, Kenya was also on top of the table for Athletics from the African Athletics championships 2010 (28 July to 1st August). You can view this in the August Archive of this blog.
With that, I would like to feature two of the runners from Kenya and also on Australian marathon male runner, who came in second with his second marathon, Michael Shelley. The reason is because I believe that their story will inspire people. I shall start off by stating the profile of Irene Jerotich Kosgei.
Irene Jerotich Kosgei, running in Sansad Marg Road, Delhi (India), with her compatriot Mogake Kemunto hot in pursuit.
3000m -9min 07sec (2004)
5000m - 15min 37sec (2004)
Half-marathon - 1h 11m 17sec (2010)
Marathon - 2hr 28m 57sec (2010)
In this year's race, Paula Radcliff, the British athlete and the current world record holder, pulled out of the race. Hence, Jerotich was the fastest woman in the category. Second fastest for the race was Lisa Weightman from Australia. Irene Mogake Kemunto, a Kenyan was also in contention for the top 3 position.
During the run, Irene Jerotich was dropped by Namibia's Beata Naigambo near a drink station, by an accidental collision. Jerotich hurt her left knee when she fell. When she fell, she fell real hard in such a way that she went face first into the concrete. While the organisers were making gestures to her to pull out of the race because of this accident, she looked at the bruised hands, arms, legs, hips and then lifted herself and watch the leaders go away for a while and started to think on what to do next. Gaining composure, she decided to press on in the race with courage.
She continued running and did not panic. She took some time to get where the leaders were. With that positive mindset she made a remarkable recovery and was finally neck to neck with Mogake, her fellow team-mate.
Weightman Lisa and Mogake were with Jerotich. However, at the last 2km to the finish, Jerotich put in all her effort to pull away slowly. The gap became widened slowly and she ultimately won the race in 2hr 34min 32sec, while her compatriot Mogake was second in 2hr 34min 43sec. Just behind her was a female runner from Australia, Weightman Lisa, who did 2hr 35min 25sec and got third.
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