Luke Kibet gets a rare marathon gold for Kenya at worlds

By John Bagratuni Aug 25, 2007, 4:09 GMT

Osaka, Japan - Kenyan prison guard Luke Kibet kept his cool on Saturday to win the gold in the hottest marathon race in world championship history.

Kibet, 24, broke a small leader group at the 30-kilometres mark and won the classic 42.195km race in 2 hours 15 minutes 59 seconds, the first gold on offer at the nine-day championships.

It was only Kenya's second win in the men's marathon at the 11th edition of the worlds, the other coming 1987 in Rome from Douglas Wakiihuri.

Kenya-born Qatari Mubarak Hassan Shami got the silver in 2:17:18 and Swiss ace Viktor Rothlin got worlds bronze in 2:17:25 after European silver last year. Home hero Tsuyoshi Ogata came close to medalling but had to settle for fifth eventually in 2:17:42 hours.

Conditions were tough for the 92 starters, with temperatures at around 30 degrees celsius despite an early 7 am start and 33 degrees on the finish, higher than the previous record 30 in Seville 1999. Several runners were stretchered away as only 57 finished.

'I felt comfortable despite the hot weather. I know it is my eighth marathon and I am proud to win the gold for my country,' said Kibet, who earlier this year got his first city marathon win in Vienna.

'It has been a long time for Kenya,' he said.

With Haile Gebrselassie concentrating on a big autumn run instead of attempting for the world title after four 10,000m golds, and two-time defending champion Jaouad Gharib withdrawing injured, the race was considered wide open.

The deciding time came at the 30km mark when Kibet pushed and Shami and the others couldn't follow.

The drama then unfolded behind him. Ogata roared from seventh after 35km to third with two kilometres to go and even appeared to threaten Shami. But Shami kept second place while Rothlin bounced back to take the bronze.

'I didn't make friends in Japan over the last kilometres,' said Rothlin, who got used to the heat by training in nearby Kobe the past three weeks.

Ogata said: 'I wanted to get a medal today, the colour would not be important. I was thinking I can get it while I was running at third position at some point during the last stages of the race. Unfortunately I could not run the same pace at the end.'

Two further medal events were scheduled for the evening session, the men's shot put and women's 10,000m where Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba aimed to start her bid for a successive long distance double at the worlds.

In other morning action, Carolina Kluft of Sweden kicked off her heptathlon campaign for a third world title with a personal best 13.15 seconds in the 100m hurdles. Only Briton Jessica Ennis was faster in 12.97, with the high jump, shot put and 200m later in the day.

The session was to conclude with the 100m heats as world record holder Asafa Powell and American challenger Tyson Gay start their hyped duel due to culminate in Sunday's final.